Traffic Jam

In the White House driveway there was something close to a traffic jam. Scarcely had the Shah of Iran driven away in his flag-bedecked limousine than Australia's Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pulled up to the door. Yet even as Whitlam walked out the door, he could see that disk-of-the-sun flags were already flying for the next official guest, Japan's Kakuei Tanaka.

For Richard Nixon, the visits were an opportunity to indulge in his favorite subject, foreign relations, and perhaps also to divert his attention--and the public's--from the roiling problems of Watergate. Indeed, almost any foreign statesman passing through town seemed welcome in the Oval Office. No sooner had Tanaka departed than President Albert-Bernard Bongo of the tiny West African republic of Gabon arrived for a chat with Nixon.

The Australian Prime Minister, who had irritated the President with his criticism of U.S. bombing of North Viet Nam, was snubbed when he sought an invitation to Washington two months ago. Last week he might have been an old friend, so warm was the greeting. Tanaka's visit had been planned preWatergate, but Bongo had been scheduled only to receive an honorary degree from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh when the glad hand reached out from the White House.

Happy as he was to see them, Nixon may nonetheless have found the foreign leaders' messages somewhat disconcerting. In sum, they pointed out to him that American power and influence have diminished and that old allies are beginning to walk a more independent path.

Whitlam, in the Australian manner, was the most direct and promised an end to nearly 23 years of meek acquiescence to U.S. policy in Asia. Whereas previous Prime Ministers had vowed that they would go "all the way with L.B.J.," Whitlam, the first Labor Prime Minister since 1950, asserted that Australia is "not a satellite of any country." Though the U.S.-Australian tie is important, he added, it is "only one aspect of our interests and obligations in our region and around the world. I believe that what we offer America now provides a better basis for a durable friend ship between Australia and the U.S."

Underneath its veneer of Oriental politesse and indirection, Tanaka's message was remarkably similar. "Not even the United States, with all its might, can unilaterally solve the problems that beset the world today," the Japanese Prime Minister said in a speech to the National Press Club. "Nor should we expect it to do so. These challenges can be met only through global cooperation, and especially through the close collaboration of Japan, the U.S. and Europe." Washington's decision to cut back on exports of soybeans, one of Japan's principal sources of protein, coupled with various other "Nixon shocks" since 1971 and Watergate, has caused Japan to question even more seriously its generation-old reliance on the American word.

As if to make up for past slights, Nixon was effusive in his praise of Japan's performance--"one of the greatest epics of progress in the history of mankind"--and was visibly responsive to the vast change in the Japanese-American relationship. No longer, he said, was the U.S. Japan's "senior partner" or "big brother." The Prime Minister's visit, he said, marks the "equal partnership" between the two countries, "not only in the Pacific but in the world."

All in all, Tanaka's visit was rated a considerable success, a healthy turning point, perhaps, in Japanese-American relations. To underline their new equality, both leaders agreed on a further exchange of visits, with Nixon going to Japan and Emperor Hirohito traveling to the U.S. Though Tanaka's opposition in Tokyo quickly denounced the trips, both journeys are expected to take place before the end of 1974. At the same time, the U.S. promised to help Japan gain a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council--further, if belated, recognition that Japan is now one of the world's great powers.

If nothing else, the week of visits was a lesson for both Nixon and the U.S. America, the President's guests seemed to be saying, still has the dominant voice in any relationship--but like it or not, it must also listen.

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