AUSTRALIA: Waltzing Close Again

President Ford had been up most of the night supervising the sea evacuation of Americans from Beirut. His eyes were puffed and squinty. But there was genuine warmth last week when he strode onto a red-carpeted podium on the South Lawn of the White House and welcomed Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to the U.S. As the last strains of Waltzing Matilda faded away, Ford stressed how "particularly close" Australia is to the hearts of Americans.

Although the Prime Minister has been in office only seven months, the Ford Administration already considers Fraser, 46, a rangy millionaire farmer, one of...

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