THE AMERICAS: Stones--and a Warning

In Lima's broad and sunny central plaza, the Vice President of the U.S. reverently laid at the base of a monument to Liberator Joseé San Martin a wreath whose entwined flowers depicted the Peruvian and U.S. flags. Outwardly Richard Nixon was at ease and confident; inwardly he had to consider warnings from Peruvian police and his own security people to skip the next stop on his program, Lima's 400-year-old University of San Marcos.

As Nixon pondered, Communist Student Leader Gustavo Valcarcel and about 2,000 party-line followers were boldly trying to slam shut the school's main gates, only to be foiled by a disapproving majority of the students. Valcaárcel redeployed his hot-eyed troops, in the street, barring entrance to San Marcos, and waited.

"Go Home, Viper!" The wreath-laying over, Nixon said to his Secret Service chief: "We are going to San Marcos." Soon his white convertible neared the sweating demonstrators, whose faces twisted with hatred as they cried, "Nixon is a viper!" Nixon turned to an aide, said: "I think we ought to take it on," got out of the car. He briskly shook some outstretched hands, shouted over the angry roar: "I came to talk with you! Have your leader come out and talk."

What came, instead of Communist Valcaárcel, was a shower of stones. One grazed Nixon's neck. "Go home, Nixon!" a youth screamed into the Vice President's ear. "I'll go home," Nixon answered, "but first why don't you come and talk with me? You are cowards! Come here and talk." But by then, stones had hit some of Nixon's aides. He withdrew. Valcarcel & Co. stampeded to the Plaza San Martin and shredded the flowers that formed the U.S. flag in the wreath. Catching up with Nixon again as he walked toward his hotel, they spat on him and threw garbage.

For violence and discourtesy, Nixon's reception at San Marcos set melancholy records. But it differed only in degree and cynically competent organization from student reaction in Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia, and the international Communist pattern was plain to see. The leaflet-spread slurs at the Vice President, e.g., "Nixon Dog!", the party-line taunts, e.g., "Insolent representative of monopolistic trusts," "What about the Negroes in the South?", and the phony causes, e.g., "Free Puerto Rico," *were everywhere the same. The aim: implanting throughout the world the propaganda theme of hatred for the U.S. in its own backyard.

Neglected Neighbors. Real grievances as well as Communist leadership went into South America's anti-Nixon demonstrations, and Peru (pop. 9,900,000) has its share of troubles. Historically, Peru is a firm U.S. ally. Conservative President Manuel Prado is pro-U-S.—and so is the big, left-of-center APRA Party, which in a marriage of convenience put Prado into office two years ago.