With a Tight Smile

For a visitor of such rank, Peking might have been expected to roll out brass bands, banners, and brigades of costumed marchers. But for the passenger aboard the Ilyushin 18 that touched down at Peking Airport last week--Russian Premier Aleksei Kosygin--the only decorations were four forlorn red lanterns, and they were leftovers from Lunar New Year celebrations. Mourned a waiting Russian diplomat: "We told them that Kosygin would stop over here. They did not answer us." The Red Chinese inhospitality was understandable. After all, Kosygin was en route to Hanoi to court Peking's next-door satellite, North Viet Nam.

Five-Minute Glow. There was some question about whether any official welcome would show up; at the last moment Premier Chou En-lai appeared. Kosygin stepped quickly down the ramp, shook Chou's hand, then hugged him; Chou managed a tight smile. Mumbled Kosygin: "It is always a great pleasure." The glow lasted five minutes. Then Chou departed, leaving the Russian Premier to drive unescorted and unheralded to the Ying Ping Kuan guesthouse, where copies of a recent Peking People's Daily carried three acid poems of greeting to Kosygin. A sample:

"We all come from the same root.

It is clear that only the labels have changed.

You simply peddle the same old line of goods."

Later Chou had Kosygin to lunch and dinner. Under the circumstances, it was unlikely that the two leaders made much progress toward healing the Sino-Soviet breach or diluting Peking's opposition to Moscow's planned world Communist conference. The Chinese announced merely that a "conversation" took place.

"Splendid Significance." Next morning Kosygin flew on to Hanoi, and there the climate was warmer. Thousands turned out in welcome, and when Kosygin called on President Ho Chi Minh, the atmosphere was announced as "warm and friendly." Radio Hanoi gushed that the visit would be of "splendid significance," and in his arrival address Russia's Premier left little doubt why. He eulogized the North as "an inspiring example for the population of South Viet Nam against American and foreign interventionists and their puppets"--which was clear support for Hanoi's subversive war to take over the South.

The Kremlin may well smell a Communist victory in Viet Nam and feel it must make a gesture of solidarity even if Washington expands the war. By lending a hand to Hanoi, Moscow would win new prestige while blunting Peking's influence. The makeup of Kosygin's contingent was probably the best clue as to what the Russians had on their minds. On the list were Marshal Konstantin Vershinin, Deputy Defense Minister and commander of the Soviet air force, and Colonel General Georgy Sidorovich, No. 2 man in Moscow's military aid program. The Russians were expected to offer military hardware that Peking cannot match --quite possibly SA-2-type ground-to-air missiles and supersonic MIG-21 jet fighters.

Moscow was almost surely strengthening its commitment to Hanoi and challenging the Chinese anew. That would make even more difficult any U.S. decision about policy in Viet Nam.

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