International records / Foreign Relations of the United States

74. Article by the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs ( Maynes )

ter ’s recent overseas tours to developing countries is another good example of our lingering tension between national bias and international reality. Presumable reference is to the President’s trips to Venezuela March 28–29, Brazil March 29–31, and Nigeria and Liberia March 31–April 3. Ritualistically the press denounced the trips as without purpose or focus. Three decades of habitual summitry had given us, what one might call an acute case of “Eurovision.” This view accepts as a matter of course our President’s dealing with heads of state in Paris, Moscow, or London, or for that matter any c…