Veep on the Wing

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Jet-hopping 22,600 miles to nine African capitals in eleven days is a junket to curdle the courage of the strong. But Hubert H. Humphrey possesses a special brand of fortitude. Last week, as his vice-presidential safari winged wearily across Africa from mishap to minor disaster, the indefatigable Humphrey averaged less than four hours' sleep a night and, seemingly impervious to a steam-heated climate, came up triumphantly talking at each stop. Africans heard his voice even as he flew overhead in Air Force Two. To soothe nations miffed because they were left out of his tour, Humphrey beamed down radio greetings from the sky.

As he crisscrossed the erstwhile White Man's Grave, dropping in on the Ivory Coast, Liberia, Ghana, the Congo, Zambia and Ethiopa--with Somalia, Kenya and Tunisia also on the itinerary--not even the fabled spirit of WAWA could put Humphrey down. WAWA, short for West Africa Wins Again, is invoked by exasperated voyagers as the malefic author of all sub-Saharan hang-ups, and it struck frequently. Hubert smilingly brushed it aside.

Termites & Wine. When Liberian President William V. S. Tubman's sixth inauguration ceremony produced drowsy Monrovia's quadrennial traffic snarl, ambassadors fumed in their stalled limousines. But not Humphrey. Glowing in white tie, top hat and tails, he footed featly through the dust to get to the palace on time. Buses broke down bearing his entourage of 60 (including Wife Muriel, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, a personal photographer, and an official in charge of "the box" of codes needed to respond to a thermonuclear war in case Lyndon Johnson should die). Soviet Diplomat Alexander Alexandrov found his hotel room accidentally wired up to a U.S. communications center. Reporters covering the Vice President were crammed into a hastily scrubbed brothel armed with cans of bug repellent. But next morning Humphrey was cheerily wishing all comers a hearty New Year as his feet sank into melting tar and Liberia's tatterdemalion army of 4,500 men and girls shambled past in gala formation.

By week's end Humphrey motorcades had accounted for two dogs and a pig. Termites fell into the wine during a Congolese banquet, and his entourage brushed their teeth with beer rather than risk the water. Humphrey handed out tickets to the U.S. Senate gallery to Liberian youngsters and implied in Kinshasa that he would seek a second vice-presidential term, promising Congolese President Joseph D. Mobutu to wear a leopard-skin cap on the campaign trail.

Goodies & Tie Clips. Promises that he and President Johnson would go over the heads of Congress to persuade Americans to give more help to Africa peppered the Vice President's public speeches and talks with African leaders. There were also some goodies: news of a $36.5 million loan for a dam in the Ivory Coast, $12 million worth of Food for Peace for Ghana, Peace Corps volunteers for the Congo, and help with a road in Zambia, as well as engraved silver bowls for heads of state and tie clips or cufflinks for lesser African functionaries. And everywhere there were African hands eager to be shaken.

Humphrey's tour embraced only nations friendly to the U.S. and excluded countries such as Guinea, Mali and Brazzaville Congo, which have close Communist ties. Even so, students sounded a few brief sour notes. In the Congo, 150 demonstrators hooted slogans against the Viet Nam war and pummeled cars with their fists; in Addis Ababa, 300 Ethiopian students burned an effigy of L.B.J. and a dollar bill, causing Humphrey to cancel a scheduled campus speech.

As the first American Vice President to tour Africa since 1961, Humphrey's official objective was to reassure Africans that they are not forgotten. He may have been too successful: speeches that raised African hopes may carry little weight with an economy-minded Congress. Unofficially, he has added a new twist to American politics. Henceforth--George Romney, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Charles Percy, et al., please note--during campaign-year pilgrimages to the three I's (Ireland, Italy and Israel), a detour to Africa may be essential in deference to almost 7,000,000 registered Negro voters back home.

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