Nation: Rubaiyat of Bashir Ahmad

In the course of his tour of Asia last spring, Vice President Lyndon Johnson stopped on a Pakistani roadside to greet an impoverished, illiterate camel-cart driver who had a grin as wide as his handlebar mustache. A true Texan, the Vice President casually invited Bashir Ahmad to "come and see us, heah?" A Karachi columnist picked up the invitation and ran with it: "My, Bashir is certainly lucky. He'll stay at the Waldorf-Astoria." Almost before Johnson could say L.B.J., he realized that his invitation had been accepted, and he was stuck with it. Last week Bashir jetted into New York, speaking...