A Footnote Tour

Carter's very modest exercise

The purpose of the journey, said National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, is to "respond to the new realities in foreign policy and the appearance of new and important countries in the world." It was a windy way to describe the 15,000-mile four-country tour that Jimmy Carter begins this week. Actually, there was little else to say, for the very good reason that nothing much is expected from the seven-day excursion beyond some small gains in good will and a little broadening of the presidential horizons.

Carter's latest foray--to Venezuela, Brazil, Nigeria and Liberia--is a kind of footnote to the grueling nine-day, 18,500-mile global marathon he embarked upon in December. Planned by Brzezinski, that mammoth jaunt was supposed to include three of the four countries Carter will now visit. They were lopped off the itinerary when someone realized that the President--or any other mortal--would have trouble keeping up the pace of such a tour. Having promised a visit to Venezuela, Brazil and Nigeria, however, Carter was obviously obliged to follow up. Liberia was added more or less as an afterthought.

After leaving on Tuesday, Carter was to stop first in Caracas. He will hold at least two private meetings with President Carlos Andres Perez. Topics are expected to include the Panama Canal treaties; human rights (Venezuela has one of the best Latin American records in that field); and undoubtedly, since that country is a member of OPEC, oil.

Relations between the U.S. and Venezuela are generally good, but Carter could have a trickier time of it in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's military government was angered when the U.S. unsuccessfully tried to block the sale of West German nuclear reactors to Brazil. Nor does Brazil like Carter's position on human rights, which is considerably at variance with the generals' view of how to run things.

When Carter lands in the Nigerian capital of Lagos, the talk will turn to geo-political issues. The President considers Nigeria to be a key mediator in African security problems, especially in southern Africa. Nigerian Chief of State Lieut. General Olusegun Obasanjo has taken a strong stand in favor of peaceful accession to black majority rule in the white-dominated southern region.

Carter's visit to Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, is more of a stopover: 3 1/2 hours long. Still, it will be the first by a U.S. President since Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1943 visit after a conference with Winston Churchill in Casablanca. The main topic for lunchtime discussion with President William R. Tolbert Jr. is likely to be regional economic cooperation.

All in all, the trip is a very modest exercise--but probably less taxing than dealing with that other foreign power in Carter's life, the U.S. Congress.

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