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Not since King George and Queen Elizabeth came over from England in 1939 had the U.S. given a foreign visitor such a bang-up welcome. Miguel Aleman, president of Mexico, got the works--and liked it.

The U.S. State Department had worried plenty about Aleman's reception (TIME May 5). But within a few hours after he landed at Washington's National Airport, the State Department could loosen its proto-collar.

The sunny, warm weather in the capital was a big help. Washingtonians, habitually cool toward visiting bigwigs, turned out half a million strong to greet El Presidente as he rode from the airport to the White House in Harry Truman's big Lincoln. The State Department had seen to it not only that Government workers were dismissed early for the occasion, but that Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues were well hung with Mexican flags and Bienvenido, Don Miguel signs. Bands were everywhere.

Grand Guy. The big viva was far from being synthetic. President Aleman, tanned and affable, carried with him a kind of movie-star glamor. He smiled a big, beaming smile, waved boyishly at the crowds. People liked him--especially the girls. "He's cute," they said.

That night, Senior Mike was Harry Truman's guest at a gold-plate state dinner in the White House. He slept there, too. Next morning, the President of the U.S. saw him off on a busy round of sightseeing and wreath-laying. "I think he's having a good time," said Harry Truman. "He's a grand guy."

But Mike Aleman did not come to the U.S. just to have fun. On his third day in Washington, he stood before a cheering joint session of Congress and suggested (in Spanish) that "the policy of the Good Neighbor" should be implemented with "an economy of the Good Neighbor." In short, Mexico needed money. Aleman got some. He and President Truman announced together that the U.S. Export" Import Bank had agreed to lend Mexico an unspecified amount. Washingtonians figured that Mexico would do well to get one-third of the $175 million she had asked for. But that would be enough to give President Aleman a good start on his ambitious new public-power, irrigation and road-building program.

Gilded Bottoms. With the economy of the Good Neighbor thus bolstered, Mike Aleman was ready to see more of the U.S. Behind him was only one minor incident to disturb hemispheric solidarity. At a high-brass dinner in the Mexican Embassy, freshly applied gilt had come off the chairs onto the formal bottoms of such U.S. dignitaries as Senators Vandenberg and Connally, Secretary of Labor Lew Schwellenbach.

Manhattan took just as warmly to Aleman as Washington, but its weather was bad. A misty rain fell. Bareheaded, Aleman smiled through hours of parading up & down the island in an open car. Wall Street gave him a soggy version of its traditional ticker-tape ovation; Mexicans, in native costumes, lined the streets. At City Hall, he was made an honorary citizen. At Columbia University, he received an honorary LL.D.

After a visit to Flushing Meadow and the United Nations General Assembly, Senior Mike went back to his Manhattan hotel for what was supposed to be a restful weekend. Instead, he took his son, Miguel Jr., 14, for a half-hour subway ride, toured Rockefeller Center, lunched with Mayor Bill O'Dwyer at Gracie Mansion. This week he hit the road again, going first to West Point, then to Tennessee and Alabama to look over TVA, then to Kansas City (to visit an experimental farm, get another degree). Then home.

Said a State Department man, summing up: "A damned good show."

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