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Living Proof. Appropriately, Nixon's first stop after a brief rest in Austria will be Egypt, the most powerful of the Arab countries and the most eager to be firm friends again with the U.S. President Anwar Sadat, who has bet the survival of his regime on working out a peace settlement with America's help, plans to meet the President at the Cairo International Airport on Wednesday and then ride with him in a motorcade through a welcoming crowd expected to be at least 1 million strong. Anxious to show off his prize guests even more—they are the living proof that his policies are working—Sadat will take the Nixons the next morning on a slow train to Alexandria, 140 miles away. They will spend part of the time in an observation car so that the Americans can wave to the three to five million Egyptians who are expected to swarm along the tracks. "If our security people had a vote," said one White House adviser, "I'm sure we wouldn't go on that train trip."
Midday Friday, the presidential party of 350 persons, including 130 newsmen, will fly to Saudi Arabia, where President Nixon will spend l½ days with King Faisal. Although the King was the prime mover behind the oil embargo after the October war, he has nonetheless maintained his ties to the U.S. Last week Kissinger and Faisal's half brother, Prince Fahd, signed an agreement in Washington that had the aim of assuring the U.S. a steady flow of oil while Saudi Arabia gets American technical assistance to spur on its economy. During his talks with the King, Nixon is expected to discuss further cooperation between the two countries, as well as the attempts to bring stability to the Middle East.
Then, Saturday afternoon, the excursion moves on to Syria, where just a few months ago the United States was still being reviled as an agent of Israel and Zionism. Last week flagmakers in Damascus worked overtime to turn out enough Stars and Stripes to garland the streets and state functions. Thousands of paratroopers, infantrymen, police and security agents will line the 28-mile route from the Damascus International Airport to the Government Guest Palace, where the Nixons will stay.
Nixon and President Hafez Assad are expected to discuss the Geneva peace conference and possibilities of U.S. aid for Syria, whose main patron has long been the Soviet Union. Last week Kissinger said that the $100 million now in the Administration's foreign aid bill as a "special requirements fund" could be used for Syria. Assad and Nixon will probably announce the resumption of diplomatic relations, which Syria broke off when the U.S. helped Israel during the 1967 war.
On Sunday afternoon, Nixon will leave for Jerusalem, where the President will have the job of assuring the new government of Premier Yitzhak Rabin, one of Nixon's favorite ambassadors while he was serving in Washington from 1968 to 1973, that the U.S. still supports Israel despite its new friendship with the Arabs. To back up his words, Nixon is expected to announce a new $500 million grant to Israel.