FOREIGN RELATIONS: Wish You Were Here …

A U.S. traveler last week gave an interesting report on a recent trip to Europe and Latin America.

“In Berlin, there were crowds of people . . . people pushing at me their passports or their travel papers to indicate that they lived in the Eastern Sector of Berlin or in the Soviet Sector somewhere, and asking for a word or something, some expression, some chance to talk with me for a moment or two. One old lady saying that this was something she was going to cherish for months and months . . . that she had spoken to me and that I represented America …”

In Vienna, it was the same. “It was a Sunday, and people were out, either bathing or boating on the Danube or playing games . . . There were great crowds of people . . . sometimes just along the railroad track, at other times at crossroads or little stations or where the train [from the airport] would go through a small village —in all the backyards and up on the roofs of the houses there were masses of people waving handkerchiefs, towels, flags, everything . . . In some little places signs woven out of flowers that said ‘Welcome’ were put up. You would see in the background some Russian soldiers walking about. But nobody paid any attention . . .”

As for the evenings, they were “typically Viennese, very charming.” First, there was a performance of The Marriage of Figaro “in the little theater in the winter palace which had been built by the Emperor,”*and it was “beautifully done, exquisitely done. And afterwards, we met the artists and had supper with them.”

Next evening, continued the traveler, Chancellor Leopold Figl “had a surprise for us, and the surprise was a performance by the … Children’s Ballet [of the Vienna Opera]. These little girls . . . put on a most charming and delightful ballet, which was beautifully done.”

In Brazil, the most striking things were the “vigor and vitality . . . One knows this, one looks at the map, one reads reports. But to fly over it all day long . . . this just boiling ahead with terrific energy . . . You can be utterly flumoxed . . .”

The wide-eyed traveler: Dean Acheson, U.S. Secretary of State.

*Joseph I, 1705-11.