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AND
NOW
important new doors
~
are opening wíde and rap-
idly before us in tbe Middle
East.
Last September I spent a profit–
able and delightful week in Leba–
non having important personal
meetings wíth the president, prime
minister, minister of foreign affairs,
and minister of education, besides
other influential people in this im–
portant Middle East nation.
In early January, I had a round–
the-world trip planned to include
Tokyo, New Delhi, Nepal, Teheran,
Addis Ababa, Vienna, and our
English campus.
I learned through sorne of our
friends in Tokyo, who are high–
ranking members of the Diet (Ja–
pan's Congress or Parliament) tbat
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
sending eight high-ranking con–
gressmen on an official goodwill
junket to visit the capitals of severa!
oil-producing countries in the
Middle East.
We were flyíng our Gulfstream II
prívate corporate jet into virtually
the same areas.
1
invited our Japa–
nese friends to travel with us instead
of by commercial airlines, and they
accepted.
At New Delhi, where we have
many friends, including the presi–
dent and prime minister, members
of Parliament and important busi–
nessmen, educators, and ambassa–
dors from other countries, we were
able to co-host a dinner in their
honor. It was attended by sorne sev–
enty distinguished and high-ranking
people of India and other nations. lt
helped promote goodwill and
friendship between these nations
and Japan.
At Teheran, again where we had
high-ranking friends, we were able
to co-host a reception in honor of
our Japanese friends and also in
Ethiopia. From Addis Ababa, we
took a one-day flight to Nairobi,
Kenya, and returned the same day.
We al! enjoyed a short safari of
sorne two hours by automobile into
a wild animal preserve, where we
saw many wild animals in their own
natural habitat. Also, plans were
PLAIN TRUTH March 1974
Personal from
EIGHTJAPANESE CONGRESSMEN
HELP OPEN NEW DOORS TO US
IN THE MIDDLE EAST
laíd while there for personal meet–
ings on a following trip with the
heads of government. This had been
set previously by invitations from a
Kenyan ambassador we had met in
another country.
But .at Kuwait and Dubai, where
we had never visited before, our
Japanese friends established future
contacts for us, which will lead to
personal meetings with the sheiks
and heads of state
in
these oil-pro–
ducing countries.
Then we ftew to Cairo. My wife
and
1
had visited Cairo 18 years ago,
but
1
had not been there since and
had no contact with government
heads there. But through our Japa–
nese friends, the door was opened.
They were glad to help us in this
way, for which we are extremely
grateful , and partly because I have
been decorated by the Japanese
government with the highest honor
ever conferred on a prívate alíen.
This, of course, gives me a different
status in Japan.
While
in
Egypt, we were at Aswan
High Dam at the same time Secretary
of State Henry Kissinger and Presi–
dent Sadat were together there, at the
precise moment the separation of
forces agreement between Israel and
Egypt was being signed.
Below is an account
1
typed on
the spot:
Luxor, Egypt
We are just passing Secretary of
State Dr. Henry Kissinger's plane,
the 707
United States ofAmerica,
as
we taxi on Luxor airport runway for
takeoff for Cairo. Secretary Kiss–
inger has been following us all day
- first, at Aswan High Dam, now, at
Luxor.
We pause briefly now for clear–
ance for takeoff. lt carne quickly, as
1
turned off the electric typewriter at
my working desk before my seat on
our "Gulfstream
11"
plane and
folded the typewriter back into its
receptacle, below the glassed-in
bookcase. This is my "office" in the
sky. And, according to published
pictures
1
have seen of the inside of
the President's
Air Force 1
707,
1
prefer my working space to his
when airborne.
With me, as usual, are Stanley R.
Rader, our general counsel, who
acts as my personal executive secre–
tary on trips, Professor Osamu Go–
toh, four Japanese congressmen,
and two Japanese stationed in
Cairo.
lt
happened that eight high-rank–
ing Japanese congressmen were go–
ing on an official goodwill rnission
toa number of Middle East oil capi–
tals, and our current round-the–
world tour was taking us to the same
(Continued on page 29)