23. Memorandum From the Acting Director of the United States Information Agency (Loomis) to the President’s Counsel (Ehrlichman), the President’s Assistant (Haldeman), the President’s Assistant (Harlow), and the President’s Special Assistant (Keogh)1

I am enclosing copies of an update of a report on the President’s overseas image.2 You may recall we did an earlier one in December which focused mainly on the reaction to the election.3

The new study traces the changes in foreign concepts of the President since the inauguration,4 but prior to the Vietnamese speech.5 It is based on press, television and radio comment.

The following trends are discernible:

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The European tour—widely hailed as a success—produced a significant increase in confidence in the President’s leadership and authority.6

Many see a new flexibility in U.S. foreign policy and believe the President is actively seeking peace abroad and fostering a more serene political atmosphere domestically.

The President’s moderation—especially his restraint in handling the EC–121 incident7—has won him the growing respect and admiration of many elements in the free world and led to a fading of his earlier image as a “hard-liner.”

Widespread approval of the President’s style is, however, tempered by growing concern over the pace of policy pronouncements and by a feeling that many critical tests over possible future actions lie ahead.

Henry Loomis 8
  1. Source: National Archives, RG 306, Director’s Subject Files, 1968–1972, Entry A1–42, Box 1, INF 13 Foreign Media Reactions. No classification marking. Copies were sent to Shakespeare and Ryan.
  2. Attached but not printed is a May 16 report entitled “Foreign Media Comment on President Nixon, His Policies and Actions.”
  3. Not found.
  4. See footnote 3, Document 4.
  5. See footnote 2, Document 21.
  6. Before his travel to London (see footnote 3, Document 8), the President attended the North Atlantic Council (NAC) meeting in Brussels February 23–24. Nixon departed London for West Berlin on February 26; during his stay he addressed the Bundestag. He met with Saragat, Rumor, and other Italian officials in Rome February 27–28 before arriving in Paris on February 28 to meet with De Gaulle. On March 2, Nixon met with Pope Paul VI in Vatican City. For additional documentation on the trip, see Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. XL, Germany and Berlin, 1969–1972, Document 17 and ibid., vol. XLI, Western Europe; NATO, 1969–1972, Documents 118 and 179.
  7. On April 14, North Korean aircraft shot down a U.S. Navy EC–121 flying over international waters. Documentation on the incident is in Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. XIX, Part 1, Korea, 1969–1972.
  8. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.