PREVIEW OF NIXON'S TOUR

Like his tailors and his barber, President Nixon's travel guides are robustly American. In the best tradition of U.S. tourism, Nixon this week will depart on a round-the-world journey that will take him to seven countries in nine days. Everything from his airport speeches to his after-dinner toasts has been meticulously typed out in advance, of course, but the pace will be hectic. As one member of the President's entourage summed it up: "If it's Thursday, this must be India."

Nixon has scheduled five of his seven stops in Asian capitals. In addition, he may make a secret side trip to the nation that, in any case, will be at the center of his discussions: Viet Nam. The start of U.S. disengagement from Viet Nam has opened up a period of uncertainty and transition in Asian politics. Faced with a reduction of the U.S. presence, Asian leaders are taking a fresh look at their relationship with the U.S., with each other--and especially with Communist China. They are also reacting uncertainly to a suggestion by Russia's Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev that Asia should consider a collective-security arrangement of its own.

Nixon's primary objectives are to sound out the mood of his hosts on the future of their region, while at the same time reassuring them that the U.S. has no intention of abandoning Asia altogether. A preview of his trip:

> The Philippines, once the U.S.'s staunchest ally in Asia, is in the throes of an election year and an identity crisis. It is plagued by corruption and graft throughout the government, and is gripped by a spiraling crime rate. Despite criticism of his regime, President Ferdinand Marcos will probably win reelection to a second term. Bowing to growing nationalistic feelings, Marcos already has begun to shift the Philippines toward a policy of assertive neutrality. The Philippines resent the fact that their base treaties with the U.S. are less generous than those just concluded with Spain, and would like to renegotiate them. In any event, Marcos wants the U.S. to hand over Sangley Point Naval Air Station to Philippine control and to return unused portions of the big Clark Air Force Base. Marcos may tell Nixon that he, too, is under pressure to bring home his troops from Viet Nam; he may even discuss plans to withdraw at least part of the 2,000-man Philippine contingent. The Filipinos are still eager for U.S. aid and investment. But as Nixon will point out, the Philippine government is hurting its chances of attracting outside capital by continuing to tighten regulations on foreign-owned business.

> Indonesia will welcome a U.S. President for the first time in its history. Nixon will find that President Suharto's team of Western-trained experts has performed a near miracle of economic revival. Though Indonesia has still not recovered entirely from the disastrous spending spree indulged in by Sukarno, it has made impressive progress. Suharto, of course, realizes that his country is heavily dependent on U.S. and Japanese foreign aid and investment, and he will do little to endanger either of these. At the same time, Suharto will make it clear that he intends to steer a nonaligned course--which should not bother Nixon. Suharto will probably repeat his offer of Indonesian troops for a U.N. peace-keeping force in Viet Nam. Since Indonesia is not allied militarily to any country, Suharto thinks that the offer would be acceptable to the North, which he recognizes diplomatically, and to the South, which he does not.

> Thailand will probably be the only country along the entire route where Nixon will hear pleas to go slow in disengaging from Viet Nam. Along with the South Vietnamese, the Thais have committed themselves most deeply of all Asians to the allied cause, openly lending their territory for use against the North. Some 50,000 U.S. troops are presently stationed in Thailand, and the majority of air strikes against North Viet Nam were launched from Thai bases; at present, the raids against Communist strongholds in Laos are flown from Thailand. Never colonized by European powers, the Thais are now acutely uncomfortable at the thought of facing the rest of Asia without the protection of U.S. muscle. The benevolent military regime of General Praphas Charusathien has begun to broaden its horizons by dealing with Soviet and East European trade missions. He will probably emphasize Thailand's willingness to continue present aid and defense arrangements with the U.S. as long as they do not compromise his strategy of creating more maneuvering room.

> India will take Nixon farther away from the Viet Nam problem, but not from the problem of war. Since Eisenhower's presidential visit there in 1959, India, the architect of nonalignment under Nehru, has had to defend its borders against Red Chinese attack. It has also fought a war with Pakistan, its old enemy. India bitterly resents U.S. arms shipments to Pakistan, which is also supplied by both Russia and China, and is no nearer than ever to reaching a settlement with its neighbor on the disputed Kashmir territory. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi may be preoccupied with domestic political problems (see following story). But the presidential stopover will flatter the sensitive Indians and provide them with an opportunity to present their point of view.

> Pakistan, of course, will deliver its side of the same arguments that Nixon will hear in New Delhi. Nixon, however, probably will have more points of contention to discuss with President Yahya Khan than with Mrs. Gandhi. Pakistan has drawn increasingly close to China in recent years, while doing nothing to discourage overtures from Moscow. Since Pakistan is technically a military ally of the U.S. under the CENTO and SEATO treaties, Nixon has every right to inquire about this trend. Yahya Khan will explain that China has taken Pakistan's side in the fight with India; as for Russia, the Pakistani reasoning is that those close relations are simply a sign that Pakistan wants to be friendly with everyone. The President is not likely to involve himself in an attempt to solve the subcontinent's old festering problems; but at least he will hear the same good news from both nations. As a result of the "green revolution" of miracle rice strains developed with U.S. funds, both India and Pakistan are well on the way to solving chronic food problems.

Nixon will leave Asia bound for Rumania and the first visit of a U.S. President to a Communist capital in history. On his homeward flight, he will make a refueling stop at a U.S. Air Force base in Britain, pausing long enough to hold a meeting with Prime Minister Harold Wilson. But the trip is designed primarily to give the President a solid grounding in Asian current affairs. In the unlikely event that he does not bring back enough homework of his own, he will get quite a bit more information from Secretary of State William Rogers, who will leave Nixon in Djakarta and head off on a related survey mission to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.

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