Nation: MOVING AHEAD, NIXON STYLE

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Lyndon Johnson's talent for pressing the flesh, for example, did nothing on his few transatlantic forays to stop the deterioration of U.S.-European relations that resulted from his blunt disregard of America's allies. By contrast, Nixon's recognition of common Atlantic interests has made relations between the U.S. and Europe better than they have been for years. The moon landing left Europeans spellbound, and Charles de Gaulle is no longer France; but some of the credit for improvement in the U.S.-European ambience this year is due to Nixon's February tour of NATO capitals and the sound advice of the President's White House foreign-policy adviser, Dr. Henry Kissinger.

The President's Asian tour seemed to be a limited success: the Nixon message, that the U.S. will keep a lower silhouette in that part of the world once the Viet Nam war is over, was received with understanding, though Nixon kept U.S. intentions inexact. So far, the Nixon Administration has done no more than make exploratory stabs at the problems of the Middle East and Latin America. But in the broad range of foreign affairs, a liberal Republican Senator argues that there are no longer any really dominant personalities on the world scene. This, he says, might increase international good will. "Nixon has a real chance, a great chance," he argues. "There is a balance of mediocrity in the world now. The world could move forward because that is so." One area in which Nixon has moved is in U.S. relations with the Soviet Union. With luck, and if the Pentagon's generals can find agreement with the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency's negotiators, there is some prospect of serious strategic-arms-limitation talks between the U.S. and the Soviets very soon.

"I am no Whig," John Kennedy once said disdainfully. What he meant was that unlike his predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower, and the 19th century Whigs William Henry Harrison and Millard Fillmore, he intended to be an activist President. Richard Nixon is something of a Whig, by choice as well as by circumstance. In his Inaugural, he celebrated "small, splendid efforts" of individual men. There are conflicting pulls on him, within his own party and in the country that gave him less than a majority last November and still reflects deep division in such splits as the Senate ABM vote.

Even if the President were more of an activist in domestic affairs, he would have great difficulty in making his will law. He must be very selective, picking his battles with care. He feels that he has limited political capital to spend, but he is cheerful about his future. At a surprise party in the Rose Garden last week, marking the anniversary of his nomination, Nixon reflected: "We won a close election. We did not win the House or the Senate. But since then, we haven't lost any. We have won the close ones, and we are going to continue to win the close ones, and we are going to win them even bigger in the years ahead."

Theory of the Presidency