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Monday afternoon Nixon will leave for a brief visit to Jordan, which maintained friendly relations with the U.S. during the stormy years. The entourage will head for home, stopping overnight in the Azores on Tuesday and returning to Washington Wednesday. The President will have only six days to rest up and prepare for his June 25 departure for Moscow and the week of summit meetings with Soviet Party Chairman Leonid Brezhnev.
The talks there are expected to focus mainly on SALT II—the stalled arms-limitation negotiations. The President last week had his hand strengthened for any bargaining on military matters when the Senate, adopting a position urged by Kissinger, rejected a proposal by Senator Mike Mansfield for the withdrawal of some American forces from Europe. The Administration maintains that the Soviets should pull back combat units from Eastern Europe if the U.S. reduces its strength hi West Germany.
Sweet Atmosphere. Looking ahead to the visit, both Moscow and Washington took steps to sweeten the atmosphere. In his Annapolis speech, Nixon made it plain that he did not think it proper, as voted by the House and advocated by Senator Henry ("Scoop") Jackson, for the U.S. to insist that the Soviet Union liberalize its emigration policies before granting Moscow trade concessions. The Soviets have denied many Jews permission to leave the country.
While maintaining the U.S. should never "acquiesce in the suppression of human liberties," Nixon said: "We would not welcome the intervention of other countries in our domestic affairs, and we cannot expect them to be cooperative when we seek to intervene directly in theirs." Two days later, Valery Panov, former star of the Kirov Ballet, announced that he and his ballerina wife would be allowed to go to Israel. For two years Panov, who is Jewish, and his wife, who is not, had been asking to leave Russia together (see PEOPLE).
As another friendly gesture, Kissinger went out of his way, before the Nixon party departed for the Middle East, to reassure Moscow about American goals in the region. Noting at a press conference that the Middle East was "an area of great concern" to the Russians, Kissinger said: "We have no intention —indeed, we have no capability—of expelling Soviet influence." With the diplomatic niceties out of the way, the offers and counteroffers planned and plotted, Nixon and Kissinger could depart on their diplomatic barnstorming tour in the expectation that it would be a pleasant change from conditions at home.