FOREIGN RELATIONS: By the Old Pegu Pagoda

Vice President Richard Nixon began astounding the Asian mind almost as soon as he arrived in Seoul on his good-will trip through the East. Thousands of Korean children lined the streets to see him driven into town from the city airport, and he returned the compliment by ordering his car stopped time & again, getting out, and giving them flowers taken from his wife’s bouquet. When he was driven into Tokyo (where he later rode in a gilded state coach to see the Emperor, and publicly announced that Japanese disarmament had been a U.S. mistake), he repeated the process, and shook hands, smiling, with dumfounded spectators along the curbs.†

Said one accompanying official: “When you kiss a baby or shake an old woman’s hand in California, it’s routine. When you do it out here, it creates a sensation.” Nixon went right on electioneering—for the U.S. and against Communism—during four hectic days in the Philippines. ”He is not afraid to shake my hand even if my shirt is dirty,” cried a shopkeeper whom Nixon met on a whirlwind trip into the countryside. In Manila, where he donned a green-embroidered, white barong tagalog before addressing a huge youth rally, he shook hands with more than 5,000 students.

Nixon’s most improbable and convincing exhibition of U.S. campaign methods was carried off before a ruined pagoda in Pegu (pop. 21,000), an ancient Burmese town 45 miles north of Rangoon. A crowd of a thousand Burmans awaited him in Pegu. Among them were a hundred Communist demonstrators carrying placards, one quaintly inscribed in English. “Go Back Warmonger, Valet of Wall Street.” A sound truck blared anti-American propaganda. Nixon on arrival walked up to the nearest card carrier and said, “I notice these cards are addressed to Mr. Nixon. I am Nixon, and I’m glad to know you. What’s your name?” The goggle-eyed Communist backed off. To a Communist leader who knew English, Nixon said: “America doesn’t want aggression. But what do you think of other aggressions such as in Korea and Indo-China?” Said the Communist uncomfortably: “That’s different.” Nixon beamed and said: “Well, how many children have t For views of Nixon’s progress, see NEWS IN PICTURES. you got?” The closely packed crowd roared with laughter; as Nixon pushed on, trying to shake hands with more demonstrators, they folded their signs and gave the whole thing up.

At week’s end, visibly buoyed, the vice president pressed on, right hand ready, toward teeming India (pop. 360 million).

† For views in Nixon’s Progress, see News in Pictures.