Nancy Reagan’s Schedule Ambitious : President, First Lady Off on Separate Paths

Nancy Reagan will part company with her husband today to begin an ambitious schedule, bringing her campaign against drug abuse to four Far East nations and taking in cultural and religious events. She will make these trips despite increased international fears of terrorist reprisals for the U.S. bombing of Libya.

President Reagan has admitted that he worries about his wife “when she goes around the block.” But, according to Jack L. Courtemanche, the First Lady’s chief of staff, “there has been no discussion whatsoever of changing the countries we’re visiting.”

‘We feel as comfortable today about the visit as we did before (the April 15 raid). I’m sure there may be some demonstrations but our latest update is that there will be no major demonstrations,” Courtemanche added.

First Lady ‘Agonizes’

However, he conceded that Nancy Reagan “agonizes, like we all do” about the Libyan situation. “These certainly are not easy times.”

The First Lady will visit two of the countries, Malaysia and Thailand, alone while her husband goes on to Tokyo for the economic summit meeting of seven major industrial nations. Malaysia, a Muslim country, has close ties with Libya, and the capital that Mrs. Reagan will visit, Kuala Lumpur, has a Libyan embassy.

Courtemanche seemed to imply that she does not worry about heightened threats to her own safety, noting that she went ahead shortly after the U.S. bombing of Libya with an appearance at a formal dinner benefitting a drug-abuse facility.

“People are amazed at how well she held up,” said Courtemanche of her appearance that evening.

The First Lady was not available for comment during the Reagans’ rest stops in Los Angeles and Honolulu on the way to this tropical island, about 11,000 miles from Washington.

Wide Experience

Mrs. Reagan, who has attended drug abuse-related events in 27 American states, first took her campaign overseas during last year’s economic summit meeting in Bonn. On that trip, she discussed the drug problem with addicts at European clinics and with the first ladies of West Germany and Portugal, making a side trip without her husband to Rome, where she met with Pope John Paul II and Italy’s first lady.

This morning, she will watch local craftsmen work and children dance. In the afternoon, she will attend a tea with the wives of Indonesian officials to be given by Indonesia’s first lady, Siti Hartinah Suharto. Mrs. Suharto will also present her American counterpart with an orchid that has been named after her.

On Friday, Mrs. Reagan leaves for Kuala Lumpur, at the invitation of Siti Hasmah, wife of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed. Siti, who is a physician, extended the invitation after attending Nancy Reagan’s First Ladies Conference on Drug Abuse in the United States last year.

The first American President’s wife ever to visit Malaysia, Nancy Reagan will attend a tea given by the queen, Raja Permaiseri Agong, as well as a dinner in her honor. Before touring the national museum and watching Malaysian dancers, she will discuss drug abuse with some parents and young people at an elementary school, and again at a working lunch with Dr. Siti.

Buddhist Temple

On Saturday, Mrs. Reagan goes on to Thailand, where she will visit the Emerald Buddha Temple at the Grand Palace, view handcraft and drug-abuse exhibits, receive an award and attend a dinner in her honor given by King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit at the Chakri Palace.

She is to rejoin the President on Monday in Tokyo. The next day, she will visit an elementary school and present the students with a mural painted for them by children at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Washington. She will attend a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and cap the 12-day trip by accompanying her husband to a state banquet at the Imperial Palace, given by Emperor Hirohito.

The Reagans will leave Tokyo for Washington the following day, May 7.

Nancy Reagan’s new chief of staff planned the trip details. In View, Part V.