FOREIGN RELATIONS: Invitation Accepted

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During a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Chief of Staff Nathan Twining excused himself, strode back to his desk in Room 4E929 in the Pentagon. He smoothed his jacket, laid aside his inevitable cigar, nodded to an aide. At the signal a door swung open and a Russian officer resplendent in a white uniform walked in and introduced himself: Colonel Philip Bachinsky, the Soviet air attache in Washington. Bachinsky politely conveyed to Nate Twining the compliments of Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky, chief of staff of the Red army, and presented an invitation: Sokolovsky requested the pleasure of General Twining's company in Moscow June 24th for the flyover in honor of Soviet Aviation Day.

For more than a week the invitation, amply anticipated, had sputtered like a bomb fuse in Washington's top drawers. Last week the President weighed the obvious pluses and minuses and gave the answer: Airman Twining could go. Ike made it plain that the U.S. has no intention of reciprocating with an invitation to Bulganin and Khrushchev, no intention of lowering its guard. With these essential provisos, the President thought it both safe and desirable to send an observer of Nate Twining's caliber to Moscow to cock a practiced eye at the Red jets and, perhaps, to probe into the deceptive chinks of peace.