A Buoyant President Heads for Europe

Facing a quick-stop itinerary that would daunt the most energetic traveler and a full agenda that would challenge even Henry Kissinger's stamina, Gerald Ford this week begins one of the most significant journeys of his presidency. He will spend seven days in Europe, the area of highest foreign policy priority, which has been getting surprisingly low-level attention from the U.S. It will be Ford's first trip there as President, and he regards his European debut as a crucially important opportunity to reassure Western leaders that they can count on the U.S. to come to Europe's defense, despite U.S. losses in Indochina. Moreover, foreign leaders will be closely sizing up Ford as a man to see if this unelected President conveys an impression of strength, wisdom, reliability and leadership.

Accompanied by Wife Betty, Ford will stop first in Brussels, where he will attend a NATO summit meeting on Thursday and Friday. Afterward, he will spend two days talking with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in Salzburg. He will also make a brief side trip to Madrid. Ford's European travels will end on June 3 after a ten-hour stopover in Rome to pay courtesy calls on President Giovanni Leone, Premier Mariano Rumor and Pope Paul VI. Traveling with Ford will be Kissinger, who last week spent five days in Europe setting the stage for the presidential diplomacy. Kissinger visited Ankara, Bonn, West Berlin and Vienna, where he talked for eleven hours with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.

Heady Aftermath. Ford's trip comes at a time when he is still feeling the heady aftermath of public acclaim in the U.S. for the way in which he directed the military action that rescued the U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez from the Cambodians. He made no mention of the incident during a speech at a Bicentennial celebration in Charlotte, N.C. But when members of the North Carolina congressional delegation praised the rescue, the keyed-up crowd of more than 50,000 cheered and whistled. Ford was also buoyed by the growing belief among liberals in Congress that in the aftermath of Indochina's collapse, they must strengthen Ford's hand by supporting his foreign policy.

Still, he tried to leave nothing to chance last week as he schooled himself in the problems of diplomacy, defense and detente that will dominate the NATO conference. Between appointments and before dropping off to sleep at night, he pored over thick, looseleaf briefing books, scribbling questions in the margins with a felt-tipped pen, asking for more information from the National Security Council staff.

During the conference's formal sessions, Ford and the European heads of state will discuss a variety of mutual concerns. Among them are U.S. negotiations with the Soviet Union to limit nuclear arms, European talks with the Soviets to reduce troop levels along the Iron Curtain, and the Soviet desire for a conference of 35 nations this fall to ratify European borders as established by World War II. But two items at the top of Ford's list of priorities will not even appear on the formal agenda: the dispute between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus, and the threat of a Communist takeover in Portugal. Those delicate subjects will be explored in private talks between Ford and individual leaders at U.S. Ambassador Leonard Firestone's elegant residence.

Verge of War. Ford had reason to hope that he might be able to break the diplomatic deadlock on Cyprus. The Greeks seem willing to partition the island permanently, as demanded by Turkey, but insist on recovering much of the land seized by the Turkish invasion force in 1974. The land was once occupied by 200,000 Greek Cypriots, who are now homeless refugees. The dispute has kept both countries on the verge of war for nearly a year.

Last week Ford gained some leverage from the Senate that he can use to help negotiate an easing of the crisis. The Senators voted to renew arms shipments to Turkey that were suspended in February because the Turks had used American-supplied weapons in their invasion. The vote was narrow--41 to 40--but White House aides said that they could have gained at least ten additional votes, if needed, from Senators who were reluctant to cast them for fear of offending constituents of Greek descent. In his meetings with Turkish Premier Siileyman Demirel, Ford will probably argue that only a more conciliatory attitude on Turkey's part can overcome House opposition to the bill. Ford will also discuss the Cyprus crisis with Greek Premier Constantine Caramanlis, who agreed to attend the NATO summit only because he believes that Ford can get the negotiations with Turkey moving.

U.S. pressure seemed less likely to alleviate the Portuguese problem. Ford has become so concerned about the growing Communist strength in the country that he has decided to ask the NATO leaders to consider drumming Portugal out of the alliance. He explained in Washington: "I don't see how you can have a Communist element significant in an organization that was formed for the purpose of meeting a challenge by Communist elements."

Only Policy. Even so, at a private meeting in Brussels with left-leaning Premier Vasco Gonc,alves, Ford planned to promise continued U.S. economic assistance to Portugal's moderate leftists. In addition, he will encourage other European leaders to supply all possible aid to Gonc,alves' leftist coalition government in an effort to bolster the Socialists, Popular Democrats and other non-Communist leftists who won nearly 70% of the vote in the recent election. The Administration was pessimistic that U.S. and European support of the moderates will block the growing Communist control of the press and trade unions (see THE WORLD). Still, as a U.S. policymaker noted, "it's the only policy that's feasible."

To further dramatize U.S. concern about Europe's shaky southern tier, Ford will spend Saturday in Madrid discussing U.S.-European relations with Generalissimo Francisco Franco and Premier Carlos Arias Navarro. From Spain, Ford will fly to Salzburg to talk with Sadat in hopes of finding a new approach to negotiating peace in the Middle East. Sadat has ruled out a resumption of Secretary of State Kissinger's step-by-step diplomacy. As a result, said a White House aide, "we have to find an alternative. The most dangerous alternative is to do nothing--and that we can't afford." Ford and Sadat also will discuss the Soviet demand that the Geneva peace talks be reconvened. To ease Arab apprehensions in advance of the meeting, Ford said last week that he would "in effect rule out" the use of military force in the event of another Arab oil embargo. The President will meet later in June with Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin in Washington.

Too Much Force. To an extent, Ford should be aided in his personal diplomacy by his firmness in dispatching Marines and U.S. fighter-bombers to force Cambodia to give up the Mayaguez and its crew. Some Europeans believed that he used too much force. But White House aides thought that the rescue operation, at the very least, demonstrated to allied leaders Ford's ability to act swiftly and decisively.

The popularity of the rescue remained high in the U.S., despite news that U.S. casualties were about twice as high as had originally been announced. The final count was 15 dead, three missing and presumed dead, and 50 wounded. The Air Force also disclosed that 23 U.S. airmen who were on their way to join the rescue force were killed when their helicopter crashed in Thailand.

Soviet Signal. There was a growing belief among Democrats in Congress Xhat for a time they must back the Administration's diplomatic and military policies to keep the Communists from misinterpreting congressional opposition as a sign of American weakness. Explained Liberal Democratic Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota: "It's very important to signal the Soviets that we're not moving into an isolationist period."

The new bipartisanship was reflected in House votes for heavy defense spending. The House authorized $26.5 billion for research, development and purchase of new military weapons in fiscal 1976, up 27% from the spending for the current fiscal year and only modestly lower than Ford's original request. Congressmen also overwhelmingly rejected a proposed 70,000-man reduction in the 416,500 U.S. troops stationed overseas. Said Illinois Democratic Representative Abner Mikva: "I'd love to get our troops out of South Korea, but not this year. This year I'm afraid it would be perceived by the North Koreans as an open invitation to attack." Added his Illinois colleague, Democrat Sidney Yates: "This is no tune to reduce troops, not with the Middle East in turmoil and Cyprus unresolved."

The congressional support should alleviate Europeans' fears that the Communist conquest of Indochina left the U.S. divided over the fundamentals of its foreign policy. As Ford told a group of foreign journalists last week, "the American people are getting out from under the trauma" of Viet Nam and are resisting any tendency to drift into isolationism. Thus the President will leave for Europe with more than enough evidence to argue persuasively that the U.S. is indeed able and willing to stand behind its basic commitments.

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