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The Rite Thing. In Dakar, the Senegalese decked themselves out in their holiday best for the festivities. With truckloads of lepers spirited out of town for the occasion, gay crowds of men and women in tunics and long print gowns gathered in the streets to watch the Americans drive by. At one point, Lyndon stopped to perform the politician's solemn rite of addressing himself to a babe in arms. "Now that Senegal is independent, every boy has a chance to grow up and become President." With that, he gave the baby a pen inscribed "Lyndon B. Johnson"; it looked good, so the infant tried to eat it.
Always, Lyndon was ready with the full phrase. "I have observed with pride," he said in Dakar, "what you have produced. But what has impressed me most was the expression on your faces of hope, vision and desire for all of us to work together to make man's lot more productive, while always conscious of social justice." Back home, the New York Herald Tribune said: "If the Senegalese can get all that in their facial expressions, the U.N. ought to be able to do away with simultaneous translation. Just conduct its debates in pantomime." Before he left the country, Johnson and Senegalese Premier Mamadou Dia discussed the possibility of U.S. help with a TVA-style project on the Senegal River.
On their way home, the Johnsons stopped off in Geneva and in Paris—where a 15-nation NATO honor guard put on a snappy welcome that included a band rendition of Deep in the Heart of Texas. But it was from his Senegal visit that Lyndon Johnson could take the greatest satisfaction: he had left behind him a ten-gallon hatful of plain old Texas-style good will.
-No kin.