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support comes from the right wing generally, from Kishi, Kaya and especially from Takeo Fukuda (now Minister of
Finance).
4.
In December 1966 he was re-elected President of the
LDP for a further two-year term, which was not marred by
any serious challenges, and during which the LDP succeeded
in staving off the encroachments of the minor opposition
parties in two national elections. Sato's tours to South-
East Asia, including Taiwan and Viet-Nam, and to the US in
the autumn of 1967 were widely seen as showing closer
identification with American policy: but Sato was still
strong enough to win re-election to the Party Presidency
in November 1968.
5. The principal achievements of his term of office so
far have been the normalisation of relations with the
Republic of Korea, an improvement of relations with Russia,
the long-overdue ratification of ILO Convention No. 87, and
above all his success in 1969 in securing American agreement
to the return of Okinawa and the maintenance of the Security
Treaty with the US. His party enhanced its majority in a
general election in December 1969. His re-election on
29 October 1970 as President of the LDF for a further two
years is a foregone conclusion. He has powerful support in
the financial world and is allied by marriage to several
influential families. He lacks the intellectual distinction
of Ikeda and Kishi and is more of an instinctive politician.
His critics describe him as an opportunist.
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