Dan Quayle's Diplomatic Debut

By DAN GOODGAME CARACAS

The scene was rich with possibility. In the front row of the Caracas theater where Venezuela's newly elected President Carlos Andres Perez would be inaugurated sat U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle, neophyte diplomat, basher of Communism and self-described "cheerleader" for democracy. A mere six seats to Quayle's right sat Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the bearded antithesis of everything Quayle stands for. Was a confrontation reminiscent of Richard Nixon's 1959 Moscow "kitchen debate" with Nikita Khrushchev in the offing?

In the end, Quayle and Castro exchanged nothing more than an occasional glance. After Perez was sworn in, Castro, flanked by a huge entourage, swept out of the hall while a crowd of Venezuelans gawked and cheered. Quayle, under strict instructions from the White House not to send any inadvertent diplomatic signals by conversing with Communists, was hustled quietly out a side door. But not before a group of young Venezuelan women in the balcony begged him to stop for a picture, squealing "Ooooh! You are so handsome!" Teased about the incident at a press conference shortly afterward, Quayle frowned and grew testy: "I've had enough of that back home."

Quayle might be excused for feeling a bit frustrated by the focus on his looks. Well aware of his image as a lightweight, he carefully prepped for his first solo mission as a diplomat, a three-day, largely ceremonial trip to Venezuela and El Salvador. Still, the Vice President's handlers were nervous about a possible blunder. When the chartered plane that was to carry nearly 50 reporters along on the trip was abruptly canceled, there were suspicions that the idea was to limit press coverage.

As it turned out, Quayle performed better than even he might have expected. He committed some small gaffes: tempting fate by tasting tropical fruit at a Caracas fruit stand and rapping former President Jimmy Carter for "complicating matters" by discussing Central American peace plans with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Quayle said he did not talk with his boss during the trip and noted that the President was suffering from laryngitis. He then took an unintentional swipe at Ronald Reagan by adding that the former President sometimes used a sore throat as an excuse for canceling press conferences.

& Francisco Aguilar-Urbina, an adviser to Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, said at first that his delegation had low expectations of Quayle: "The impression we had was that they put him in a drawer during the campaign." But he later said Quayle won "very positive reviews" in his talks with Latin leaders. The Vice President impressed Brazil's President Jose Sarney by asking about the country's November elections. "You mean in Brazil?" replied Sarney, evidently astonished that Quayle was aware of the upcoming vote. Even Ortega had kind if somewhat condescending words: "I thought he showed an ability to understand the political reality of Latin America."

In El Salvador, Quayle did have a substantive message about the Bush Administration's policies toward Central America. Like Vice President Bush in 1983, Quayle warned Salvadoran military officers and rightist politicians that the recent upsurge in political murders must be reversed if the U.S. is to continue pumping $545 million a year into the country. Quayle also encouraged Salvador's President Jose Napoleon Duarte to reconsider his rejection of the leftist rebels' request that the March elections be postponed so they can take part.

Quayle's mission was most useful in broadening the horizons of an insular young politician whose horizons until recently did not reach much beyond Indiana. During the campaign, Quayle bragged about the foreign leaders he knew, but those were chiefly from the NATO allies and Israel. In the rest of the world, he has many people to meet and much to master before he can be trusted to venture beyond a carefully prepared script. On last week's tour Quayle persuaded at least a few observers that he might be up to the task. As his official plane flew back to Washington, the handful of journalists aboard helped the Vice President celebrate his 42nd birthday by giving him a cake and a present -- a Venezuelan bank note inscribed with: FIRST FOREIGN TRIP: QUAYLE FAILS TO SCREW UP!

With reporting by Ricardo Chavira/San Salvador