The Administration: Our Man . . .

The U.S. embassy aides were well-scrubbed, white-shirted and business-suited as they waited at New Delhi’s Palam airport. “I’ll be damned,” cried one of the greeters as the arriving U.S. State Department dignitary bounded down from the big MATS Constellation. For Under Secretary of State Chester Bliss Bowles stepped forth in shirtsleeves, shorts and sweat socks.

The Bowles costume might be something of a surprise, but in fact the State Department’s No. 2 man was offending neither diplomatic nicety nor common sense. His 18-day tour to Europe. Asia and Africa had not been cast as an official affair of state. Thus Bowles, who served as U.S. Ambassador to India from 1951 to 1953 and has long been outspoken in his opposition to starched-shirt diplomacy, could reasonably wear any outfit he deemed most fitting for a man well acquainted with India’s August climate.

“Our Man Knows All.” Ostensibly, Bowles was off to attend a series of regional State Department conferences in Nigeria, Cyprus and India, with a couple of side visits to see Yugoslavia’s Tito and Burma’s Premier U Nu. At each stop he briefed local public officials and newsmen on U.S. determination in Berlin and about the U.S. switch from massive retaliation to what he called flexible defense.

But beyond all that, for Bowles personally, the trip was a well-timed chance to get away from Washington. In the weeks before he left, Bowles had twice been summoned to private lunches with President Kennedy. The President was irked because Bowles alone, of top Administration officials, had leaked word of his prior opposition to the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba. But fundamentally his displeasure went deeper. Bowles was originally put into the State Department to be shop administrator, and had preferred instead to act more like a policymaker in his own right.

Hopping from Lagos to Nicosia to New Delhi last week with a planeload of 20 in his party, onetime Manhattan Adman Bowles wisely refrained from discussing his problems with the President. But Bowles Press Aide Carl Rowan said airily: “If Mr. Bowles was afraid of being ousted one would assume he would appear meek and cautious. Instead, he has spoken with strong conviction.” And Bowles’s aides were prolific with puffs about their chief. Said one: “Our man knows all the African problems, and he is clear about what stand he thinks the U.S. should take in each.”

“At Your Mercy.” Such statements were unlikely to enhance Chester Bowles’s standing with John Kennedy. But Bowles himself continued, as if unaware, on his energetic way. In Nicosia he attended six dinner parties in a single evening. Mrs. Bowles and other State Department wives, brought along at Government expense, spent part of their time at the conferences, part visiting local tourist attractions. At Lagos’ Faji market they mixed with the local women, moved one Nigerian to comment on the U.S. wives: “These women are beautiful and well taken care of by their husbands.” One aide waxed enthusiastic about wives: “It’s a stroke of genius. They have so much to contribute. They’re worth the air fare and keep.”

As the Bowles entourage pushed through New Delhi receptions and dinner parties this week, Bowles’s outbursting friendliness (“I will put myself at your mercy like I used to do.” he smilingly said to New Delhi newsmen), his sweeping blessings on national self-determination, and even his short pants provided good publicity. Beamed one Middle East diplomat: “He is one American we can trust.” Now all Chester Bowles needs to do is to bring John F. Kennedy to the same conclusion.