National Affairs: Far Places & Close Principles

Once he had set the turbine of personal diplomacy spinning successfully on his recent eleven-nation tour, President Eisenhower was determined to maintain a high r.p.m. Last week he was revving up again with the announcement that he will take off next month to visit Latin America, where sensitive nations often feel that the U.S. takes them too much for granted (see HEMISPHERE). There was also a possibility that he might stop off in Japan, Korea, Formosa and the Philippines on his way home from Moscow in June.

In South America, Ike will touch down in Brazil (Feb. 23-26), Argentina (Feb. 26-29), Chile (Feb. 29-March 2) and Uruguay (March 2-3). Noticeably absent from the itinerary are Peru and Venezuela, where Communist-led mobs heckled and attacked Vice President Nixon on his tour (TIME, May 19, 1958 et seq.); the White House diplomatically pointed out that a visit to Peru would also entail a stop-off in neighboring Ecuador, where the capital of Quito is too high (9.350 ft. above sea level) for a man with the President's heart history.

Mamie Eisenhower, who avoids flying when she can, will go along on the South American trip. Ike will also take his brother Milton, president of Johns Hopkins University and his adviser on Latin America, five members of the Eisenhower-appointed National Advisory Committee on Inter-American Affairs, Secretary of State Christian Herter, and Assistant Secretary of State (for Inter-American Affairs) Roy Rubottom Jr.

"You're a Jewel." Meanwhile, the President made himself at home in Washington. Minutes after landing from Augusta, he turned up at the Mayflower Hotel, where Senate Republican Minority Leader Everett Dirksen was celebrating his 64th birthday. "By golly," pealed Dirksen as he and Democrat Lyndon Johnson greeted Ike, "you're a jewel to come."

Johnson then took Ike on one arm, Dirksen on the other, led them into the Chinese Room for the festivities. The President stayed and chatted for about 20 minutes—part of it in earnest conversation with Vice President Nixon and Secretary of Labor James Mitchell (subject: steel)—greeted Mrs. David McDonald, wife of the steelworkers' union boss. (Cooed Rosemary McDonald to Pat Nixon: "The settlement was our loveliest anniversary present.")

"Truly Basic Challenges." At 8 o'clock next morning, the President joined Vice President Nixon, assorted Cabinet members and Congressmen, and 800 other worshipers at the National Presbyterian Church for a communion service on the occasion of the reconvening of the 86th Congress. After the service (conducted by six ministers and 30 elders), the President went to the adjoining parish hall and met with church officials in a discussion of the proposed $20 million new National Presbyterian Church. He looked over the plans for the new building, heard a description by Architect Edward Stone (TIME cover, March 31, 1958), and then —to the surprise even of his own press secretary—readily responded to an invitation to say a few words.