The World: Bucharest Embarrassed

Rumania's President Nicolae Ceausescu, the only Soviet bloc leader to have visited both Disneyland and Peking, is justly famed for his independent foreign policy. Still, he has problems.

Tokyo is in a swivet over Ceausescu's abrupt cancellation of a visit to Japan that had been planned for early this month. Ceausescu begged off, lamely claiming that he was simply too busy.

He cited Fidel Castro's impending Rumanian tour in late May and the need to prepare for a party conference coming up in July, but the Japanese are unconvinced. They suspect that Ceausescu, who talked to a dissident Japanese politician in Bucharest early...

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