Verbal Bouquets

By Frank Trippett

They are strikingly different in style and temperament, and their philosophies of government are at least as far apart as Hollywood and Plains, Ga. Yet when they came together last Wednesday in Atlanta, their distinctions were for the moment brushed away by the one thing they have in common: their custodianship of the presidency. As Ronald and Nancy Reagan joined Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter for the dedication of the new $25 million Carter Presidential Center, what might have passed as a routine ribbon cutting provided the nation with a rare glimpse of adversaries transcending enmity with tact, grace and high style.

In ceremonies on the hillside from which General William Tecumseh Sherman watched the battle of Atlanta in the Civil War, Reagan and Carter sustained the conciliatory spirit of the occasion despite reporters' efforts to provoke them into fresh bickering. That very morning Carter had lambasted Reagan on the Today show for his lack of progress on arms control. So as the two Mr. Presidents toured the complex of four circular structures, television correspondents yelled baited questions about Carter's criticism and about whether Reagan had "caved in" to the Soviet Union to secure the release of Nicholas Daniloff. Reagan, in his inimitable style, deflected the question about the Today show by telling NBC's Chris Wallace, "I wasn't watching television." Carter, with a smile, told ABC's Sam Donaldson and the others, "Your questions make me very glad to be a former President."

The formal program, including a concert by the Atlanta Symphony, launched the nation's eighth repository of presidential papers. Much of Carter's energy since he left the White House has gone into planning the center, raising money to fund it ("humiliating," he complained) and donning a hard hat to oversee the construction with his characteristic attention to detail. The 130,000-sq.- ft. interior houses a library of some 27 million presidential documents, a museum whose exhibits include electronic quizzes that let visitors play at making policy, and quarters for a think tank that, under the aegis of Emory University, will study and try to help resolve international disputes.

The President gave the center a send-off with a generous measure of praise for its eponym, who turned 62 on dedication day. Wishing Carter a happy birthday, Reagan, 75, grinned as he assured him, "Life begins at 70." He complimented the onetime Georgia Governor for his civil rights leadership in the South and handed him a verbal bouquet, a thank-you for "gracing the White House with your passion and intellect and commitment." In turn, Carter thanked his successor for his "generous, gracious and thoughtful" remarks. The warmth Reagan conveyed in his speech, added Carter, made him understand "more clearly than I have ever before in my life why you won in November 1980 and I lost."

With reporting by Joseph J. Kane/Atlanta