The Big Hello

Gongs clanged and drums rumbled. Chief of State Liu Shao-chi and Premier Chou En-lai were on hand at the airport. On the trip into the city, a roaring crowd of half a million (said the Red radio) tossed flower petals. Lampposts were festooned with bunting, and at Peking's Gate of Heavenly Peace colored balloons floated skyward trailing slogans of greetings. It was just about the biggest and gaudiest welcome Peking had organized for any visitor ever--including the 1959 one for Nikita Khrushchev.

The object of this lavish enthusiasm was Sekou Toure, 38, the neutralist President of an obscure little West African nation that has been independent for scarcely two years. But in the scramble for influence in the emergent new nations of Africa, the Red Chinese were determined not to be outdone by the Russians. In Moscow, Nikita Khrushchev had given Toure a new trade agreement and a massive palace for his embassy. But in Peking, every crowd was a little bigger, every rally a little noisier.

Under left-leaning Toure, Guinea is Communism's first solid foothold on the vast African continent. But the stakes are far greater than Guinea; China was bidding for influence in all of Africa's disintegrating colonial empires. If Toure went away properly impressed, he could be counted on to pass the word to the leaders of Africa's other new and needy nations. Cried Peking's Mayor Peng Chen: "U.S. imperialism is the most vicious enemy of the national independence movement in Africa. Imperialism remains imperialism, just as the jackal remains a jackal." Replied Toure: "Our friend, the mayor of Peking, is absolutely right in describing imperialism as a wolf which changes its clothing as it wishes . . . but it can never change its nature, that is its actions toward sheep, above all when they are not united."

Toure was happy to accept Peking's offer of a $25 million, no-interest loan. But, already adept at the begging bowl, he was careful not to join in the open attacks on the U.S. or to mention any other Western nation by name when deploring imperialism. To do so would destroy the chance of wangling a bit of Western aid to supplement and offset the swag he had picked up from the eager Communists.

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