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Sometimes even a lonely president, keen to get out and do something, would do better to stay at home with the dog. Bill Clinton has long w...

Sometimes even a lonely president, keen to get out and do something, would do better to stay at home with the dog. Bill Clinton has long wanted to visit India before he leaves office. His five-day trip next month will be the first by an American president since Jimmy Carter visited briefly in 19788230;.Mr Clinton8217;s presidential tourism is badly timed. Indeed, it could well do more harm than good8230;

Knowing its sensitivities, Mr Clinton would also like to visit Pakistan, however briefly. that is made difficult by the military coup there last year, and also by reports that among the militant groups Pakistan supports against India in disputed Kashmir are the hijackers of a recent Indian Airlines flight. A visit just now would seem to condone both a coup and Pakistan8217;s support for terrorists.

Knowing their boss8217;s determination to get to India, however meagre the likely results, and possibly to Pakistan too, some American officials are trying to sell this as a 8220;war prevention8221; trip. That will not please the interference-averse Indians. In theory, there is no reason why America should hold better relations with modernising India hostage to those with failing Pakistan. Their new nuclear credentials apart, the two have never seemed more unalike. Yet Mr Clinton8217;s visit is a dangerous way to make the break. If pushing ahead with a high-profile visit to India means an equally high-profile snub to its rival, at a time when both America8217;s and India8217;s relations with Pakistan are at a new low, he will be seen to be tilting sharply India8217;s way. That will please India, but only exacerbate military rivalries on the subcontinent8230;

Excerpted from an editorial comment in The Economist8217;, February 5THE strip was an intensely personal effort for Mr Schulz. He had had a clause in his contract dictating the strip had to end with his death. He opted to retire it during his battle with cancer, saying he wanted to focus on his health and family without the worry of a daily deadline.

8220;Why do musicians compose symphonies and poets write poems?8221; he once said. 8220;They do it because life wouldn8217;t have any meaning for them if they didn8217;t. That8217;s why I draw cartoons. It8217;s my life.8221;

His final daily strip featured a thoughtful Snoopy, again sitting atop his doghouse with his typewriter. In a text message signed by Mr Schulz, he thanked fans for their 8220;wonderful support and love.8221;

8220;Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy 8230; how can I ever forget them,8221; the message read.

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Although he remained largely a private person, the strip brought Mr Schulz international fame. He won the Reuben Award, comic art8217;s highest honour, in 1955 and 1964. In 1978, he was named International Cartoonist of the Year, an award voted by 700 comic artists around the world.

The CBS special 8220;A Charlie Brown Christmas8221; in 1965 won an Emmy and rerun immortality, and many other specials followed.

There was a hit musical You8217;re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. The book The Gospel According to Peanuts explored the philosophical and religious implications of the strip.

When Mr Schulz announced his retirement, Mort Walker, the creator of the comic strips Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois, said he and Mr Schulz wept when they spoke on the phone.

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8220;He did something entirely different from what all the rest of us did,8221; Mr Walker said. 8220;I write and draw funny pictures and slapstick; it8217;s a joke a day. He delved into the psyche of children and the fears and the rejections that we all felt as children.8221;

Excerpted from International Herald Tribune8217;, February 14