On the Road with Agnew

THE VICE PRESIDENCY On the Road with Agnew With stops in Spain, Morocco and Portugal this week, Vice President Spiro Agnew will wind up his 32-day, tennation tour of Asia, Africa and Europe. TIME Correspondent Hays Gorey has been with the Vice President all the way. From the Congo, he sent the following assessment:

At Seoul, his first official stop, Spiro Agnew firmly planted his foot on the platform of his slow-moving, flag-emblazoned Jeep, and hung on tight. The determination was unmistakable and prophetic. On this, his third official trip abroad, the Vice President was clearly determined to resist his well-known proclivity for putting his foot in his mouth. The result has been a mission free of serious or even amusing gaffes like the Philippines miscue in 1969, when Agnew nearly sat on President Marcos.

Agnew abroad is dignified, correct and, above all, distant, the gracious teatime and dinner companion of potentates and princes, ministers and maharajahs. Tall and tanned, he is meticulous to the point of having every last hair in place, even after stepping out of a minor gale. He has done his homework. In private talks and ceremonial functions, Agnew, from all available evidence, has performed flawlessly. Perhaps too flawlessly.

No Contact. Unlike traveling Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey and Lyndon Johnson before him, Agnew scrupulously avoids contact with all but the rulers of the countries he visits. The ex planation offered by his aides and Agnew himself is that it is not his style to plunge into crowds or conduct foreign diplomacy in a manner that accommodates "dramatic television pictures."

A more compelling impression is that of a VIP who feels it beneath his dignity to display any warmth for or interest in ordinary people. For six days, Agnew enjoyed the plush appointments of Seoul's Chosun Hotel, emerging only for ceremonial functions or to play golf and tennis. One day when it rained, he ordered a Ping Pong table sent up to his room. He visited no American soldiers, Korean hospitals, schools, marketplaces or housing projects. In Singapore, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia, the routine was essentially the same. In Kenya, Agnew visited the Treetops wild-game preserve, conferred briefly with President Jomo Kenyatta, later lunched with him and his ministers, and golfed.

Agnew's relations with the press have done little to soften his austere image. Indeed, he and his staff have shown little more than an icy tolerance for either the traveling press contingent or native journalists. During an airborne press conference, the Vice President accused the American press of a Communist bias. As a result, foreign press coverage has frequently been less than flattering. The Kuwait Times, in an editorial titled "An Odd Experience with American Courtesy," complained that Agnew was making only a "palace visit," and that "to the masses, and ironically enough, for the local pressmen too, the visit might as well have taken place in some distant corner of the earth." Similarly, the Daily Nation in Nairobi complained of unprecedented security "to keep photographers and newsmen away from the visiting VIPs."

When he allows himself to relax, as he did at Treetops, Agnew has occasionally displayed more charm and wit than he is given credit for. "A finesse that the United Nations would be proud of," he observed of the various animals taking turns at a salt lick.

Perhaps more indicative of Agnew's attitude was his admiration of the large animals he saw in Africa. "That rhinoceros," he noted. "Nobody fools around with him." Then, spotting a water buffalo, he commented: "There's a mean buffalo. No one tries to move him around." Agnew, after 21 years in office, is still bent on proving that, like the animals he admires, he will not be pushed around.

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