Thousands Cheer Presidential Envoy

Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President of the United States, flew into West Berltn last Saturday afternoon to pledge the lives fortunes and sacred honor of Americans in protection of the Divided City. Proclaiming that “Freedom can prevail, and peace endure”, the vice president, accompianied by Charles E Bohlen, special assistant to the Secretary of State and General Lucius D. Clay, (retired), former United States Military Governor in Germany, toured the city and addressed, a crowd of over 100,000 Berliners gathered outside of the Schoneberg Rathaus. He conferred with American military officials, ate with the troops and went to the out skirts of the city Shnday at noon to welcome the 1st Battle Group of the 18th Infantry, arriving to reinforce the American bastion in the isolated city. Welcomed to the city by Berlin’s Governing Mayor WilIy Brandt, the visiting party began its journey to the town hall from Tempelhof. A half-mile from the airport Vice President Johnson stopped the car he was riding in, opened the door and stepped out, hands outstretched, into the crowd. Smiling broadly, Johnson shook hundreds of hands, kissed babies and petted a lucky dog as he walked approximately five blocks before returning to his car. As the personal representative of the chief executive, he gave President Kennedy’s pledge that the freedom and access to Berlin will be maintained. Prior to his arrival in Berlin the Vice President was in Bonn conferring -with Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. General Clay, respected and admired by Berliners for his tough stand during the dark days of the Berlin Blockade in 1948-49, remarked while here that, “whenever Berlin is in distress, I will be, with the Berliners.” The Vice President enplaned for the U. S. at 4 a.m. Monday to report to President Kennedy.