Around the World with Henry

Among the reporters who accompanied Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on his whirlwind tour of the Middle East was TIME Correspondent John Mulliken, who regularly covers the State Department. His report:

"Maybe it can't be done, but if anybody can do it, he can," said Joe Sisco to the Pakistani Ambassador to Washington. The lanky Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, like the 38 other members of Henry Kissinger's entourage, was nervously waiting for takeoff in the VIP lounge at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. It was 8 o'clock in the morning, but one by one the ambassadors of Iran, Morocco and Jordan and the Chinese liaison officer--all representing countries that Kissinger would visit in his twelve-day round-the-world journey--arrived to see him off. There were handshakes all around, and then the big blue and white Air Force One headed out over the Atlantic in the cold gray rain.

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Kissinger's is a tight and very different ship from that presided over by former Secretary of State William Rogers, who liked to while away the long hours in the air playing bridge. Now and then Kissinger would stroll back to the press section to talk briefly with the 14 reporters aboard. The well-understood ground rule: no attribution, unless a statement is cleared with the department's spokesman, Robert McCloskey.

It soon became clear that the role of trip's jester had fallen to Sisco. His bombastic humor--not to mention the shaggy old yellow golf sweater he invariably wore aloft--made him a natural for the part. His first big moment occurred as the plane was landing at Rabat, when a large Xerox copier suddenly broke loose and slid toward him. The machine stopped short of crashing into the horrified Assistant Secretary, but not before someone yelled: "Oh, my God, stop it! We can't have more than one Joe Sisco on this trip."

Morocco was the first Arab country that Kissinger visited. The odd presence of a German-born American Jew in the ornate Arab palace seemed to symbolize how much was riding on the trip. Kissinger was not the only one to sense as much. That evening, after the end of a midnight talk with King Hassan II, 44, who is generally regarded as an Arab moderate, the monarch showed unprecedented courtesy by walking Kissinger a full block back to his guest villa at the Royal Palace.

Before talks resumed the next day, Kissinger was obliged to undertake an apparently unfamiliar diplomatic chore: inspecting an honor guard. He trudged down the line too quickly, hardly looking at it, much less inspecting it. When the commander of the guard finally caught up with him, Kissinger thrust out his hand, only to discover that the Moroccan commander had a sword in his right hand. After an awkward shift of the sword, they finally clasped hands. Said one onlooker who was traveling with Kissinger: "Certainly the first chapter of this trip must be titled 'Henry amongst the Berbers.' "

By the time Kissinger's entourage left Tunis for Cairo, apprehension was almost palpable if only because the airport serving the Egyptian capital was near the combat zone. But the midnight landing came off without a hitch, and Kissinger was engulfed in an excited crush of photographers. Security officers finally jammed him into a waiting limousine and whisked him to the palatial presidential suite at the Nile Hilton.

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The tumultuous welcome turned out to be a good omen. Next day, when the Secretary of State and Egyptian President Sadat met the press after three hours of talks, the cordiality between the two men was plainly visible. "I hope to see you soon," said Kissinger in farewell. Replied Sadat: "You are welcome always." Then, after lunch, the Secretary was driven off to see the pyramids. Once again a crowd of shoving, shouting photographers dogged his steps. After vanishing inside the Great Pyramid, he finally emerged and waved to the crowd below. "Henry's looking it over," said one member of his staff. "He wants to build one for himself."

The next morning it was on to Amman. Kissinger was outwardly buoyant. Yet he was also plainly worried about how the Israeli government would respond to Sisco's explanation of the cease-fire plan. Kissinger went to lunch with King Hussein, who took him for a brief whirl over the city in his helicopter before chauffeuring him to the airport. Quipped the Secretary: "If it weren't for the honor, I would rather have walked."

Kissinger then flew off to Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital. Shortly before King Feisal's dinner for the Secretary of State, Sisco arrived from Tel Aviv to inform Kissinger that the Israelis had accepted the agreement. The trip was then only half over--Iran, Pakistan, China and Japan lay ahead--but the most important part of the mission had seemingly been accomplished.

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