The Tourist

FOREIGN RELATIONS

At times, Attorney General Bobby Kennedy seemed more like an eager office hunter on the hustings than a tourist in Poland. As thousands of Poles cheered him on a half-day visit to Cracow, Kennedy turned to the city's mayor and joked, "I am going to announce my candidacy for the mayoralty of Cracow."

Building Bridges. Fresh from Germany, where he had unveiled a memorial plaque to President Kennedy on the fagade of the West Berlin City Hall,

Bobby was mobbed by enthusiastic Poles from the moment he landed at Warsaw airport. Despite press silence on the visit, a throng of several hundred was on hand to meet him and to be reminded of "a kind of historic harmony between our two countries, a rhythm of events that causes our destinies to march together." When Kennedy, his wife Ethel and their three oldest children went to Sunday Mass at Warsaw's St. John's Cathedral, they emerged to find a crowd of 5,000 waiting for a glimpse of them. The Kennedys clambered atop Ambassador John Moors Cabot's limousine, and were serenaded with a chorus of Sto Lat, a sort of Polish version of For He's a Jolly Good Fellow. Kennedy asked how many there had relatives in the U.S. About one-third raised their hands.

Throughout his four-day visit, Kennedy stressed the traditional and blood ties between Poland and the U.S., asking for help in building the "bridges of reconciliation" between eastern and western Europe. The spontaneous approval roared back by the crowds predictably ruffled official Polish feelings. At a dinner given by Ambassador Cabot, Deputy Foreign Minister Josef Winiewicz proposed a toast reminding Kennedy of "the strict political realism of our links with Socialism and with the Soviet Union."

"Misfit." Before leaving for London on his way back to the U.S., Kennedy visited with Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, Primate of Poland and symbol of the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to the Communist government. Polish officials urged him not to see the cardinal, insisting it would be against the best interests of U.S.Polish relations. Kennedy disagreed, pointed out he was a Catholic on a private trip to Poland. He and the cardinal talked for an hour at the Jasna Gora monastery in southern Poland.

Bobby also expressed a few views on U.S. domestic matters and his own future. The head of the Polish Student Union at the university city of Cracow wanted to know about his brother's assassination. "I believe it was done by a man with the name of Oswald," Kennedy replied, "who was a misfit in society. There is no question that he did it on his own and by himself." He said, for the dozenth time, that he would step down as Attorney General after the November elections. Later, still musing about the possibilities, he said he just might spend a year in England.

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