President Ford's Far Eastern Road Show

The point of Gerald Ford's journey halfway round the world last week lay chiefly in its symbolism. He sought no major new agreements with leaders of Japan, South Korea and the Soviet Union. He offered no change in U.S. foreign policy. But as he traveled, he was visibly performing as a global leader and dramatizing the fact that on the world stage, no one is more important than the U.S. President.

At his elbow during the trip was his foreign policy tutor, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who boasted that his student was ready for his first examination in international diplomacy. Said the professor: "President Ford is very well prepared. I've spent many hours with him. He is tough, steady and totally unflappable."

Still, for all of the buildup, the trip was the kind of presidential junket that has become increasingly familiar, with Ford and his hosts sticking to agenda and signing communiques that had been worked out well in advance. Since there seemed no pressing need for Ford to make the trip, many people thought that he should have stayed home and worked on the domestic problems of inflation, recession and a restive populace anxious for a demonstration of presidential leadership. But Ford's aides advised him to try to build public support for his presidency by moving out into world affairs. He was accompanied on the trip by a retinue of 153 reporters, including TIME Washington Bureau Chief Hugh Sidey and Correspondent Bonnie Angelo.

Ford's most important stop was with Soviet Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev at an isolated compound of wooden and concrete dachas amid oak, birch and pine trees about 15 miles north of Vladivostok, home port for the Soviet Pacific fleet. Soon after reaching the camp by special train from the military airfield where Air Force One had landed, Ford and Brezhnev sat down in a conference room overlooking Amur Bay for talks that lasted all afternoon, into the evening and part of the next morning.

Cautious Optimism. Their chief task was to get the process of detente moving again after almost a year's delay. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. failed to reach agreement at the Moscow summit last summer, in part because Brezhnev was apparently stalling until the Watergate crisis was resolved, in part because each side feared that the other was demanding permanent nuclear superiority. After visiting Moscow in October, Kissinger said that he was cautiously optimistic that a permanent SALT accord can be signed when Brezhnev visits Washington next summer. To that end, Ford and Brezhnev spent several hours exploring the general principles that will guide the U.S. and Soviet officials during the treaty negotiations. During the course of the talks, the Russians issued a statement, approved by Ford, that they were determined to give improvements in U.S.-Soviet relations "an irreversible character." Subsequently, Kissinger told newsmen that the two leaders had made progress toward a 10-year treaty limiting offensive nuclear weapons.

Beyond the substance of their talks, both men tried to size each other up, for they had never met before, despite their previous visits to each other's capitals. As Kissinger explained, "They have the capacity to annihilate humanity and may be confronting each other in a crisis, so it is important that they understand each other." Ford's objective was to show Brezhnev that he is a man whom the Soviet leader can trust and with whom he can establish a special relationship, yet also a man who cannot be pushed around. Ford and Brezhnev apparently found each other agreeable company, for both are hearty, gregarious men of simple tastes, direct manner and a native instinct for politics.

Each was obviously determined to make a show of getting along with the other. Hardly had they met when they started a lighthearted banter. Referring to the snow-covered landscape, Ford remarked how hard it is to clear snow from the streets of Washington. With a jaunty wave of his cigarette, Brezhnev replied: "And that will be our first deal. We send you Soviet snowplows." Added Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko: "At a good low price." While former President Nixon was often nervous in summit negotiations and had trouble looking his adversary in the eye, Ford seemed to be quite at home in the talks. He never wavered from eyeball to eyeball contact.

The setting for the talks was a no-frills rest camp that is normally used by vacationing officers from military installations in the Vladivostok area. After one look at the spartan rooms, a Ford advanceman dubbed the compound the "Comrade Hilton." There is an Olympic-size, seawater swimming pool in an adjacent recreation building, and Ford swam eight laps before his conference with Brezhnev. After his dip, he donned a shaggy wolfskin coat. "I'm a sheep in wolfs clothing," he quipped. When Brezhnev indicated that he admired the coat, Ford promptly took it off and helped the Soviet leader put it on.

The harsh Siberian winter was a sharp contrast with the balmy autumn weather that greeted Ford five days earlier at Tokyo's Haneda International Airport on the first leg of his trip. During that first visit of a U.S. President to Japan, Ford's hosts left nothing to chance. To forestall trouble with leftists, authorities raided Marxist youth headquarters to confiscate iron clubs, stationed riot police at 15-ft. intervals along the streets that Ford traveled, and kept all but friendly, carefully screened groups of people out of his sight. As a result, the demonstrations against his visit were less serious than some had expected, though some 3.5 million trade unionists, partly in protest against Ford's trip, went on strike, shutting down Tokyo's buses, subways and commuter railroads on Tuesday.

On arrival at the guest house, Akasaka Palace, Ford tumbled into his huge, canopied bed to nap and adjust to the 14-hour time difference between Tokyo and Washington. Massage girls were on duty until 11 p.m. in case Ford wanted a rubdown. (He did not.) The President took to the combination of East and West with gusto; soon after his arrival, he was bowing as he shook hands.

Next morning Emperor Hirohito came to the palace to welcome Ford officially. Both wore formal dress, though the President's striped trousers were cut so short that they showed an unseemly inch of black silk stocking. Almost 30 years ago, Ford was an officer aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier in the mid-Pacific when Hirohito ordered Japan's surrender. A military band played the two countries' national anthems, then, in a touch of unintentional irony, serenaded Ford with the University of Michigan fight song, The Victors. Hirohito took Ford to the moated Imperial Palace to meet Empress Nagako and exchange gifts: from the royal couple, a 2 1/2%-ft. Kutani porcelain plate; from Ford, a Steuben crystal work engraved with pine and fir trees.

On his return to the guest palace, Ford did what comes naturally to every U.S. politician. Ordering his driver to stop at a spot in the palace park where about 1,500 well-wishers had been admitted, the President jumped out of his Cadillac limousine. The crowd surged against a restraining rope to touch him, sometimes three or four shaking his hand simultaneously. Mrs. Yoshie Saito, 40, a Tokyo housewife, was so excited that she exclaimed: "Ford-san's hand was big, warm and soft. I'm going home to wrap up my right hand with a bandage to keep the honor bestowed on me as long as possible!"

At lunch, the serious work of the trip began when Japanese Premier Kakuei Tanaka pleaded with Ford to pay as much attention to Asian problems as he does to European affairs. Unmentioned, but undoubtedly on Tanaka's mind, was the shokku administered by former President Nixon in 1971, when he made his historic overture to China without first consulting Japan. Well-briefed on the sport dearest to Ford, Tanaka asked for cooperation between the two countries in "the spirit of team play, the value of which you learned through your glorious career in football."

The theme of partnership set the tone for the talks between Ford and Tanaka in the ornate gilt, cream and pink marble Rising Sun Room of the Akasaka Palace. Their discussions touched on detente, China, the Middle East and Japanese sensitivities about nuclear weapons but focused principally on energy and food. In the final communique, the two leaders promised that their countries would cooperate on oil policy --an agreement that appeared to override Japan's previous reluctance to act in any way that might offend the Arab oil producers. But the statement did not commit Japan to joining the consumers in the event of a confrontation with the Arabs over oil prices.

Ford also promised that the U.S. would avoid imposing limits on exports to Japan of soybeans--as Nixon did in 1973--or any other products. In a speech to the Japan Press Club, Ford said: "We will continue to be suppliers of the goods you need. If shortages occur, we will take special account of the needs of our traditional trading partners."

Golden Pheasant. The Ford visit underscored the end of Japan's traditional policy of seikei bunri, which means keeping political and economic policies separate. Kissinger called the talks "the optimum of what one would have hoped for" and described Japan's recognition of the interdependence of the world's economic and political structures as a "very considerable" development. Nor will the accomplishments be scuttled by Tanaka's expected resignation this week in the wake of a scandal over his personal financial dealings. Kissinger made a point of talking privately with the possible successors. Moreover, since all of them belong to Tanaka's Liberal Democrat Party, the change in government will not mean a marked shift in policies.

For the most part, Ford's four days in Japan were occupied with such ceremonial and sightseeing events as receiving the Order of the Golden Pheasant from a group of 20 Boy Scouts, watching a judo demonstration and planting a 9-ft. dogwood tree to commemorate his visit. On Tuesday night, the Emperor and Empress honored him with a banquet featuring French cuisine. In a graceful speech, Hirohito regretted World War II and expressed thanks for U.S. help in rebuilding Japan.

Not until the President went to Kyoto on Thursday did he taste Japanese food. Protected by some 8,000 policemen, he spent the entire day touring the city, which was Japan's capital from 794 to 1868. For the most part, Kyoto's 1.4 million citizens ignored Ford's visit. Almost no crowds waited to see him at his stops. That night, at a Kyoto restaurant, he drank sake and ate an eight-course Japanese dinner served by two young apprentice geisha, Honorable Brightness and Honorable Treasure Pleasure. Said Ford of the Japanese leg of his journey: "It couldn't have been better, both substantively and otherwise."

After a 90-minute flight from Osaka, Air Force One touched down at Kimpo Airport in Seoul on Friday morning. At the airport, Ford paid a warm tribute to "our faithful ally" and declared: "I am here to reaffirm our friendship and to give it new life and meaning." It was a visit that many people would have wished the President to skip, for his presence served to bolster the position of Dictator Park Chung Hee, whose rule has grown increasingly harsh in recent years. But failure to visit Seoul would have been taken as a major shift in U.S. policy, which Ford decided the U.S. could not afford.

Martial Art. After the airport ceremony, Ford was welcomed with confetti and waving flags by an estimated 1 million children and adults who lined the 16-mile route to the Chosun Hotel. He laid a wreath in front of the tomb of the Korean unknown soldier and another wreath on the black marble tombstone of First Lady Yook Young Soo, who was killed last August by an assassin's bullet intended for her husband. Ford then went by helicopter 25 miles north of Seoul to Camp Casey to visit some of the 38,000 U.S. troops still stationed near the demilitarized zone 21 years after the end of the Korean War. Ford lunched with the troops and watched a taekwondo, the traditional Korean martial art, championship match between two divisions.

Afterward, Ford returned to Seoul for two hours of private discussions with Park at the Blue House, South Korea's presidential mansion. Officials said only that the two leaders dealt primarily with foreign policy, security questions and the state of the faltering Korean economy. Ford also expressed concern about Park's repressive domestic policies, warning that they were losing South Korea's vital support in the U.S. Congress. Two congressional committees have proposed cutting U.S. military aid to Korea nearly in half, to about $80 million for this fiscal year--far short of the $500 million Park says he needs to complete modernization of his 600,000-man army.

That night Park gave a state dinner for Ford at the Capitol Building, a silver chopsticks affair that was attended by about 100 South Korean dignitaries. Next morning Ford flew to Vladivostok for his visit with Brezhnev, followed by the 16-hour flight back to Washington and the nation's harsh domestic realities.

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