Around the World, A Block Away

No one need doubt that Richard M. Nixon is running, despite his cautious avowal that he won't have anything to say on the matter for some months. The fact is, he has been running all over the world--first to Western Europe and Russia, then to Asia for a 21-day swing through Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and South Viet Nam. Last week, Nixon was off to Latin America on the third leg of an international marathon, which, he tells friends, should make him the nation's "best-informed private citizen on world affairs." The trip will continue in Africa and the Middle East next month. By his own hopeful timetable, it should end with his nomination by the Republican Convention next year.

Even Babies. The last time Dick Nix on ventured into Latin America, as Vice President in the spring of 1958, mobs of Communist-led students rained stones and spittle on him in Lima and Caracas, screaming "Death to Nixon!" Last week, as a private citizen returning to the relatively more stable continent, he was politely, even warmly greeted. "I still don't believe it," said one Peruvian, as he watched Nixon being hoisted onto the shoulders of enthusiastic villagers near Lima. After dandling a few babies in the village and laying a brick for a new school, Nixon returned to Lima for consultations with President Fernando Belaunde Terry about the progress of the Alliance for Progress.

In Santiago, Nixon talked for two hours with Chile's President Eduardo Frei, then moved on to Buenos Aires for backgrounding conferences with government officials, including Argentine President Juan Carlos Ongania. What about Ongania's military government? With some tact, Nixon remarked: "I give him high marks for picking good men and taking their advice. I'd say this country is fortunate in having a man like him now."

Probably Five. At a luncheon later in the U.S. Embassy residence with reporters and businessmen, Nixon forgot the problems of Latin America long enough to offer an unstartling prediction about 1968: "There will probably be five candidates: Romney, Rockefeller, Percy, Reagan and myself. Two will probably fall by the wayside in the primaries." But, he also observed diplomatically, "regardless of who wins the election, there will only be one winner: Latin America." That said, Dick Nixon packed his bags once more and headed for Brazil and Mexico.

On the plane to Rio, he reflected: "I know everyone will say all this is to get publicity in the U.S. But putting aside any question of whether I will run in 1968, I do intend to take a big part in the foreign policy debate. The U.S. economy is so strong that it would take a genius to wreck it. But a small mistake in foreign policy could bring disaster."

Back in Washington, the Nixon-for-President committee was sweeping out its new headquarters in the abandoned offices of a building-and-loan association. The address: 1726 Pennsylvania Avenue, one hopeful block up the street from the White House.

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