Taking His Act on the Road

By WALTER ISAACSON

Reagan plays the good neighbor and gracious host

Twenty-two scarlet-uniformed Royal Canadian Mounted Police on matched chestnut horses flanked the motorcade. An exaltation of fighter jets swooped in low against a snow-flecked sky. Demonstrators on the gracious lawns of Ottawa's Parliament Hill waved signs protesting a variety of U.S. policies. With all the requisite pomp, pageantry and protest, Ronald Reagan began his first state visit, a trip to America's No. 1 trading partner. Standing before the Gothic tower of Parliament, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau welcomed him: "Our long relationship has been based on more than neighborhood. It has been based on friendship and on a sharing of values." Mixing French and English diplomatically, Reagan responded: "Merci. C'est un plaisir to be here with you today."

The pleasure seemed to be real and mutual, despite several testy issues that divide the countries. As two men determined to like each other who find to their surprise that they actually do, the polished Trudeau and the affable Reagan took to each other warmly. They even exchanged lines of poetry from memory when they discovered, after a long lunch at the Prime Minister's residence, a mutual fondness for the poems of Robert Service.* Above all, Reagan succeeded by simply being Ronald Reagan, thanking the Canadian Parliament for such exports as Mary Pickford and Art Linkletter, and saying that the demonstrators who had marred his welcoming ceremony "must have been imported to make me feel at home."

The auspicious start is important. Canada is upset over the decision by Reagan earlier this month to withdraw part of a treaty, signed two years ago but held up in the Senate by New England opponents, that would apportion fishing rights in the rich Georges Bank fishery off the East Coast. Canada is also dismayed about the "acid rain" that results from some 6 million tons of sulfur dioxide drifting north from U.S. industries--a problem that could be exacerbated if U.S. pollution laws are relaxed. The Ottawa government has also been pushing for faster U.S. action on plans for the joint construction of a gas pipeline from Alaska across the Canadian West into the U.S. And the U.S. is worried about Canadian proposals to make American firms reduce their ownership in Canada's energy-related industries.

While making no specific proposals on the problems facing the two nations, the U.S. did say that it would be willing to work out a temporary plan to conserve fish supplies in disputed East Coast waters until a final resolution can be reached.

This only partly satisfied Trudeau, who expressed Canada's "deep disappointment" over the fisheries problem and later warned that "more delay would be irresponsible." On the acid rain issue, Secretary of State Alexander Haig claimed that the U.S. shared Trudeau's "concern"--an assurance that did little to allay Canada's fears. But the important thing, from the Canadian viewpoint, was the groundwork that was laid. Reagan had wanted to make a quick unofficial visit to Canada, as he did to Mexico before his Inauguration, to stress his still undefined notion of a "North American accord." Because of scheduling problems, he ended up going to Canada on his first state visit as President.

That gesture will have its own payoff. As External Affairs Minister Mark MacGuigan told reporters pressing him on Canadian grievances, "Look, this is probably the first American President in history to begin his Administration with an approach to Canada."

For the U.S., there was an additional benefit to the meetings. Haig and Reagan were able to explain American policy in El Salvador and receive a qualified endorsement of its general goals. Trudeau and MacGuigan oppose U.S. shipments of arms to El Salvador, and Trudeau had promised Liberals in the government that the issue would be raised in the strongest terms. But U.S. officials calmed some of the Canadian concerns. Said MacGuigan at the conclusion of the talks: "The arms flow, which is apparently intended to balance out the arms that have already been received by the rebels from outside, is not the harbinger of a massive U.S. military involvement in El Salvador. This was an explanation that was most welcome to us."

West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher also expressed concern about U.S. involvement in El Salvador on his visit to Washington early last week. Like the Canadians, the West Germans are opposed to outside arms going to either side in the conflict. They see the struggle as an indigenous one requiring a political solution, rather than an East-West showdown. Though U.S. policy has apparently produced certain tangible results--the flow of arms to the leftist guerrillas has dropped off sharply in recent weeks, according to intelligence reports--the State Department tried to allay some of the allies' fears by downplaying the Salvadoran situation. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs John Bushnell, who has spent much of the past few weeks emphasizing to the press the extent of Soviet bloc support for the rebels, called a briefing to complain, quite contradictorily, that the story was getting "five times" more coverage than it deserved.

The concerns Genscher transmitted to Haig and Reagan were not limited to El Salvador. The Germans are troubled by the more broad-scale breakdown of relations between the Soviet Union and the U.S. Detente is still overwhelmingly supported in West Germany as a prerequisite for peace in Europe. Moreover, the West Germans are a leading beneficiary of East-West trade. Hours before Genscher left for the U.S., his government received a lengthy letter from Leonid Brezhnev reiterating the Soviet President's call for a resumption of arms negotiations, a Soviet-American summit and a moratorium on the deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe. Brezhnev's letter also went to Reagan and the leaders of other Western countries. The West Germans have rejected, as have the Americans, a moratorium because it would halt NATO's planned Theater Nuclear Force modernization at a time when the Soviets have the strategic upper hand in Europe. But Genscher carried to Washington a recommendation to resume arms negotiations with Moscow as soon as possible, a message other European countries have also sent. Genscher succeeded in getting a U.S. commitment to hold NATO discussions later this month as a step toward resuming East-West arms-limitation talks.

Washington remained wary, meanwhile, of Brezhnev's proposal for a summit meeting.* Though both Canada and West Germany are receptive to the idea, Haig and Reagan persuaded both countries to assent to the American view: such a meeting can occur only after a basic groundwork has been laid at lower levels, and will be contingent on Soviet actions in Afghanistan and during the Polish crisis. The Moscow "peace offensive" is seen by Washington as primarily a propaganda ploy. But Haig agreed at week's end to hold low-level talks promptly with the Soviets.

The Administration last week indicated that it is considering another move to counter the Soviets: giving military aid to rebels in Afghanistan and Angola. In an ABC News interview, the President drew a distinction between the U.S. sending arms to the Afghans fighting the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul and Communist countries sending arms to Salvadoran rebels. The Afghans, he said, were not "rebels," they were "freedom fighters ... people fighting for their own country and not wanting to become a satellite of the Soviet Union." Aid to the Afghan rebels has also been suggested by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.

The Administration plans to send to Congress, perhaps this week, a proposal to repeal the 1976 ban on U.S. assistance for insurgents fighting Angola's Soviet-aligned government. A similar measure, sponsored by Jesse Helms, passed the Senate last year but died in a Senate-House conference. Congressman Stephen Solarz of the House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to fight the measure again. Says Solarz: "If this is the first shot in the President's policy toward Africa, it is sure to backfire."

Meanwhile, TIME has learned that the White House made an important administrative change last week to help it cope with sudden international problems. It has traditionally been the duty of the National Security Adviser to supervise "crisis management" in the situation room during major international incidents. But in the Reagan White House, the NSC adviser has been downgraded, and others --including Haig, Chief of Staff James Baker and Counsellor Edwin Meese --were considered for the situation room post. Haig was eliminated because it was thought best to handle such crises in the White House. Baker and Meese were rejected for fear of sparking a staff rivalry. Last week, Reagan chose George Bush for the job, the first time a Vice President has been used in such a role.

The Administration thus far has cast most international problems in East-West terms. Yet the leaders Reagan has met during the past few weeks --from Britain, France, West Germany, Canada--have agendas that involve a more complex approach to world issues, all of which will need to be coped with. Reagan is far from an assured and polished diplomat, but last week he showed that his charm, and willingness to listen, is appreciated by America's friends and neighbors. He also learned, in his partly successful attempts at coordinating U.S. policy with America's allies, that even the most loyal friends often do not see world issues in the same light .

-By Walter Isaacson. Reported by Laurence I. Barrett/Ottawa and Douglas Brew/Washington

*They quoted vintage Service to each other from The Cremation of Sam McGee: "There are strange things done in the midnight sun/ By the men who moil for gold;/ The Arctic trails have their secret tales/ That would make your blood run cold." *Though it is Washington's turn to serve as host to a summit, the Soviets say that Brezhnev, 74, does not travel well, and will probably insist on a neutral site, such as Vienna, if a meeting ever comes about.

With reporting by Laurence I. Barrett, Douglas Brew

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