WASHINGTON, Nov. 25, 1963 (UPI) - President Johnson tonight met some of the great and near great of the world and had a few words with some and longer talks with others at a reception in the luxurious entertainment quarters atop the State Department building.
He shook hands in a receiving line with the official heads of 69 delegations from abroad, then talked briefly on an individual basis with some of the visiting heads of state.
Then he conferred at greater length in Secretary of State Dean Rusk's office with three leaders who were planning to leave Washington tonight.
French President Charles de Gaulle, the last to arrive at the reception, entered at 6:12 p.m. EST after Johnson had retired to a side room for individual chats. The French president was first greeted by the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson who then took him in to present him to President Johnson.
Following a chat with Johnson, brief because they were meeting for a longer session later in the evening, De Gaulle then emerged to talk with Mrs. Johnson and wander among the guests sampling the delicacies of a lavish buffet laid in the Benjamin Franklin Dining Room.
De Gaulle, dressed in a black doublebreasted suit with white shirt and dark tie, talked animatedly with Mrs. Johnson for several minutes through an interpreter. He then chatted with Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meier, Prince Gholam Reza of Iran and then somewhat lengthily with the new chancellor of Germany, Ludwig Erhard.
De Gaulle was in a very affable mood wandering among the various dignitaries and winding up his stay with a conversation with Soviet Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan.
De Gaulle was overheard to say to Mikoyan at the end of their discussion: "You must understand that what's good for France is not necessarily bad for Russia." De Gaulle added, however, that this is not the time for serious discussion and asked Mikoyan to "extend my best wishes" to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
Soviet Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin told newsmen that Mikoyan would stay in Washington "a few days." Dobrynin said he did not know whether Mikoyan would see Johnson.
American officials were deeply impressed with De Gaulle's attitude during his stay here. He told one American official, upon his arrival, that "the little people of France send me to Washington."
He was said to have spoken in the most moving terms of the late President Kennedy, explaining that Kennedy had been a great idol of the French people.
Johnson began receiving the visiting heads of state, princes, prime ministers and special envoys shortly after 5 p.m. EST. He had arrived at 4:58, accompanied by Secretary of State Dean Rusk and presidential advisor on national security affairs McGeorge Bundy.
They chatted briefly with Deputy Undersecretary of State U. Alexis Johnson and Undersecretary of State George W. Ball and then took up their position just inside of the entrance to the Thomas Jefferson Room.
There against a background of the American and presidential flags and a priceless tapestry depicting the early history of the United States, they received the visiting dignitaries.
The foreign officials entered through the John Quincy Adams Room, were greeted in the Jefferson Room and passed on into the Benjamin Franklin Room. This is the huge state dining room lit by French chandeliers of crystal donated by Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon when he was undersecretary of state.
Johnson and Rusk were alone in the receiving line until almost all the visitors had been received. After 58 of the 69 had passed through, Mrs. Johnson joined the line.
She was in time to greet Mikoyan, Soviet Ambassador Anatoly F. Dobrynin and the head of the Soviet Foreign Office's American Department, Mikhail Smirnovsky.
Johnson shook hands heartily with Mikoyan. They kept shaking hands throughout the course of their chat of about a minute and a half in the receiving line.
Johnson was dressed in a very dark gray suit, white shirt and a black and gray striped tie.
The first dignitary through the receiving line was the president of Germany, Dr. Heinrich Luebke, followed by the new chancellor, Ludwig Erhard. Johnson told Luebke "we appreciate so much your coming here on this sad occasion." Johnson and Erhard shook hands for a long time very strongly and chatted with animation. They will confer tomorrow.
The Socialist mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt, came far later in the procession but he got a very warm double handshake from Johnson, who said, presumably in answer to an invitation, "I'm going to come."
