Sizing Up the Movers and Shakers

By Hugh Sidey

Jody Powell always maintained that one of Jimmy Carter's problems was his tendency to base his decisions solely on logic. Back in the Georgia statehouse, Carter used to wonder why it was necessary to butter somebody up to get him to do what the facts showed he should do. Carter did very little buttering up.

He carried this belief with him through the campaign, arguing that he would dramatically diminish "clubhouse government," in which powerful men arranged things among themselves on the phone or over lunch. Then he went to the White House, and something changed his mind.

Carter's curiosity about, and delight in, the spectrum of personalities on the national and world stages has increased with each day at his desk. In seven months he has played host to no fewer than 18 foreign heads of state. Before each meeting he has read up on his guest. In the case of Menachem Begin, Israel's new Premier, Carter digested his book The Revolt. By the time they parted, Carter liked Begin for his intellect and warm manner. But Begin returned home and announced that three Israeli settlements on captured Arab territory would be legally recognized. The President's opinion of Begin plummeted. Now Carter is not very trusting.

Carter's enthusiasm for Great Britain's James Callaghan is that of one pol for another. His regard for France's Valery Giscard d'Estaing is rooted in the Frenchman's intellect. Egypt's Anwar Sadat made sense to Carter. "I wouldn't mind spending a weekend fishing with him," said Carter about Canada's Pierre Elliott Trudeau. While he was in London, the President met with the leaders of 16 nations from Luxembourg to Greece. He was armed with personal fact sheets and psychological profiles of each.

One critical element in the Carter assessment of his counterparts is Rosalynn. When the champagne has been drained and the music has died, Jimmy and Rosalynn sit down together and add it all up. Rosalynn has diminished Prime Ministers with one cool sentence or helped, as with Japan's Takeo Fukuda, elevate them to higher esteem.

There are many who question the importance of the personal relationships between men and women of power. But history is biography, as Emerson said long ago. There are those like Zbigniew Brzezinski, a foreign affairs scholar now advising Carter, who believe that understanding between these leading figures is more important than ever. That is one reason why Carter wants a meeting with Brezhnev. After mildly insulting each other for six months across 5,000 miles, Carter believes they might strike a harmonious chord over caviar.

It has happened already on the home front with those like House Speaker Tip O'Neill. At first Carter was suspicious. Then he began to ask questions about the big Irish man. Finally he invited him to dinner. Tip has now been to the White House for at least 20 meals and Carter considers him a true friend.

Confronted a few days ago with opposition to the new Panama Canal Treaty, Carter explained his position in terms of cold logic, as usual--but almost instinctively, he also reached out for the butter dish. When Ambassador Sol Linowitz called Carter from Panama City to report that an agreement would be reached within hours, one of Carter's first requests was that Linowitz phone the news to Jerry Ford up in Vail. At least three times Carter personally talked to Ford on the phone, then sent Linowitz, General George Brown, and former Ford Aide Brent Scowcroft on a 6 1/2-hour journey to Ford's chalet in the Rockies. Jerry has now joined enthusiastically in the battle for the treaty.

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