Bidding To Help the Peruvians

AFTER a military coup brought Juan Velasco Alvarado to power in Peru 21 months ago, United States relations with that country almost degenerated into a cold war. Angered by what Peruvians called the "unjust enrichment" of the International Petroleum Co., Velasco seized the company's oilfields. Subsequently, Peru also took over U.S.-owned sugar lands. Only intervention by Richard Nixon stayed U.S. retaliation under the Hickenlooper Amendment, which would have imposed economic sanctions on Peru. Even so, the diplomatic climate was markedly frigid, and Peru went unabashedly seeking Russia's aid to play against its traditional ally.

Then last May catastrophe struck. One of the worst earthquakes in history annihilated several Peruvian villages and towns, killing 50,000 people and leaving other thousands homeless. Aid poured in from sympathetic countries, among them France, Spain and Yugoslavia. Cuba's Fidel Castro flamboyantly donated a pint of his blood. Last week Pat Nixon flew south for a two-day visit to the disaster areas, the first such foreign mission ever undertaken by a First Lady. Air Force One, which carried her there, was piled high with gifts for the Peruvians. A second plane was even more loaded.

Kitchen Chair. That was too much for the Russians, who had thus far contributed very little to Peru. They were still smarting from Rumania's tart observation that, in the wake of floods in their Communist country, the U.S. had contributed more help than fraternal Russia. Three days after Mrs. Nixon left Peru, giant Antonov An-22 cargo ships began winging from Moscow to Lima, carrying 100 prefab houses, road-building machines, 200 beds and helicopters to be used in remote areas. On her return flight, Mrs. Nixon had hinted at this anticipated effort: "We're going to have competition in this. That's good --I welcome that kind of competition."

Pat Nixon flew to Peru not on behalf of the U.S. Government--which had already made substantial contributions--but as a representative of private American donors. Her trip grew out of a remark to her husband one day at Camp David, Mrs. Nixon explained. "I just wish I could do something to help those people. I'd like to make a trip down," she told the President. His reply: "Why don't you?"

One week later she was on her way. Arriving in Lima, Mrs. Nixon was greeted by Mrs. Consuelo Velasco and 6,000 people. The following morning, sitting beside the co-pilot in a chrome and plastic chair without a seat belt, she headed for the mountains in a C-130 transport plane. "It was the first time I'd ever taken off in a kitchen chair," she laughed. The nine tons of donated supplies included blankets, roofing, tools and even a custom-tailored dinner jacket. Some of these she saw already piled along the dirt airstrip when she landed at the town of Anta.

Here Mrs. Nixon switched to the President's helicopter, Marine Corps One, to survey the damaged area. In the chopper, she hovered over tents arrayed below. In the background was the mighty Huascaran mountain, 22,000 feet high, from which the avalanche of ice and debris shaken loose by the quake had descended upon the villages. Observing the remnants of the town of Yungay, Mrs. Nixon said: "The mud is beginning to recede now. Eventually they will find the bodies. It is so sad."

Rosy Again. At Huaras, she landed on a soccer field, toured the town and visited three relief operations. Everywhere she went, she was presented with flowers picked by Peruvians who had gone up into the mountains beyond the destruction to get them.

As she prepared for the return flight home, Mrs. Nixon pledged that the United States "will continue to help until everything is rosy once again." Her trip perhaps could not alter the realties of Peru-U.S. relations, but her personal gesture contrasted with the Soviets' opportunistic bid for the good will of Peru. As President Velasco observed: "To have President Nixon send his wife here means more to me than if he had sent the whole American Air Force."

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