Robert F. Kennedy has returned from the world, and from all one gathers from the press, the world has been impressed. For the Attorney General has been explaining the United States, not always an easy task, with an agility and toughness remarkable even in the President's family. Most unfavorable reactions, in fact, emitted from Texans, who excoriated his apology for the Mexican War and pleaded that he not forget the Alamo, an heroic episode that took place some 12 years earlier.

Mr. Kennedy's tour was inspired; in Japan, indeed, his treatment of hecklers approached brilliance, and he merits nearly all the editorial enthusiasm lately accorded him. So far as tough and agile men who diffuse their charm and talents as widely and effectively as he has done may make any difference to the world. Mr. Kennedy has ingeniously fulfilled all the functions the President himself used to perform as a "personal diplomat," and has spoken for the United States in a measured, reasonable voice.