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Now, at Camp David, Khrushchev seemed to reflect those drives. He impressed Eisenhower as a leader extremely anxious to win the respect and approval of his own people, as one who might wish to divert armament spending to consumer production for internal political reasons, as one almost pathetically eager to be accepted into the society of legitimate statesmen. When showing off before such Soviet underlings as Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Ambassador to the U.S. "Smiling Mike" Menshikov, Khrushchev was full of bluster; in his private meetings with Ike he spoke quietly and seemed ready to do business.
At Camp David, then, Eisenhower came to believe that formal negotiations with Khrushchev could be more than an exercise in thumbsucking, tongue-twisting futility. After Camp David, Ike was willing as never before to go to the summit.
In fact he was eager. Plans were made for an October summit conference, but France's De Gaulle scuttled the schedule. The Western allies agreed to a December meeting of the Western leaders in Paris—and in that, Ike saw and seized upon a historic opportunity to display the dynamics of freedom before the world.
"A Great Awakening." He had long wanted to visit India. Now he decided that on the way to Paris he would go not only to India but would also sweep the southern tiers of Asia and Europe, where ancient civilizations stood alike with infant nations in constant, poverty-torn struggle to improve their lot.
From Rome to Ankara to Karachi to Kabul journeyed the President of the U.S., and to Teheran, Athens, Tunis and Casablanca. And everywhere, he carried his message, understandable to all and backed by unbroken U.S. performance: "We want to live in peace and friendship—in freedom." More than that: "We want to help other peoples to raise their standards, to be as content with their lot as humans can be." To India's Parliament, he spoke of "a great awakening" in which the world's peoples have come to recognize "that only under a rule of moral law can all of us realize our deepest and noblest aspirations." Without mentioning Communism by name, he defined it as the dead hand of tyranny, pointed to a free-world future based on economic order and law. At Delhi University, he said: "A reliable framework of law, grounded in the general principles recognized by civilized nations, is of crucial importance in all plans for rapid economic development . . . Law is not a concrete pillbox in which the status quo is armed and entrenched. On the contrary, a single role of law, the sanctity of contract, has been the vehicle for more explosive and extensive economic change in the world than any other factor."
A High Presence. On foot, by car and by camelback, on bicycles and in bullock carts, millions crowded into the cities along his route to see Eisenhower, and their reply to his message came in a torrential outpour. "We love you, Ike," cried the Turks, tough fighters on the cold-war frontier. "Take back our love, Ike," cried Pakistani throngs. In India, the reception burst the chains of imagination, crowds surged and seethed around Ike, and in front of village huts appeared brass vessels, festooned with mango leaves in recognition of a high presence.