Diplomacy

"If we're an arrogant nation, they'll view us that way," George W. Bush said during his 2000 presidential campaign. "But if we're a humble nation, they'll respect us." Little more than two years later, the world's verdict on President Bush's diplomacy is split -- between critics who see it as arrogant and allies who support its goals but sometimes wonder where the "humble" went.

For 36 years, the U.S. Department of State's Art in Embassies Program has been placing original works of art by U.S. citizens in American diplomatic residences worldwide. This fall, for the first time, the State Department will send artists to visit the host countries along with their artworks.

There's a refrigerator aboard George Bush's new Air Force One that carries a supply of his blood type in the event of an emergency while the President is traveling. Maybe there also should be a case of Geritol on board. Try this out for an overseas travel schedule, coming on the heels of this past weekend's summit with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Helsinki: * Oct. 3 in Berlin, for a ceremony--possibly with Gorbachev--marking the reunification of thetwo German states.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who is normally low-key in his public pronouncements and says he favors "quiet diplomacy," has been unusually outspoken during President Reagan's Asia trip. In Bali, Indonesia, he expressed outrage at Philippine Vice President Salvador Laurel's suggestion that there were "cobwebs of doubt" among the Philippine people about how solidly Reagan backs the government of President Corazon Aquino.

Some American specialists detect signs that Iran is eager to improve its tense, bruised relationship with the United States. But Kamal Kharrazi, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, offers little hope that this is so. The United States, he insisted in a recent interview with The Times, is "involved in a kind of psychological war against my country. So in such an atmosphere there is no room to talk about relations."

In the face of disaster, the Chicano mothers of La Verne Avenue have learned to put on their best and bravest face. But beset by unrelenting news of pending doom, they acknowledged this week that even their deep belief in God may not be enough. Along the street, the mothers--trying to make sense of the mixed messages of rapid-paced diplomatic maneuvers--seemed resigned to the inevitability that a ground war in the Persian Gulf was about to begin.

If Frenchman Henri Leconte wins his match today, it will set up a France versus the United States final Sunday in the French Open tennis tournament here. That's the main sports story in France these days. But in the international political arena, a similar rivalry is developing: France versus the United States in just about everything.

The Clinton Administration, while reminding Iraqi authorities of the wartime devastation they suffered four years ago, said Monday it hopes diplomacy will secure the release of two Americans imprisoned for illegal entry into Iraq. "We believe that quiet diplomacy will work in this case," White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said.

South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela ended a three-day visit here Saturday after an unhesitant embrace of Cuban President Fidel Castro's Communist revolution, which he called "a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people." "We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of a vicious, imperialist-orchestrated campaign," Mandela told a rally at which he was Castro's honored guest.

There he was, on the network news, presenting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with a pot from Acoma Pueblo after securing the release of imprisoned Americans William Barloon and David Daliberti. Call it just another busy day for Rep. Bill Richardson, the globe-trotting New Mexico congressman who has run up a string of remarkable accomplishments in foreign capitals over the past 18 months.