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By Ann Gerhart and Roxanne Roberts
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 28, 1999; Page A30

The shut-off streets still had that eerie feel, but at White House and National Building Museum parties last night, NATO commemorators broke through their enforced stiffness and finally began to act festive. Official remarks contained the forbidden word "celebration." Champagne burst from its bottles and spilled into glasses. The word Kosovo stopped dominating discussion, drowned out, perhaps, by the thumping sounds of gospel and bossa nova.

With much of the pomp and circumstance ebbing, the weekend summit celebrating 50 years of the NATO alliance seemed to function last night as a good excuse for a party. In a massive tent on the South Lawn, 800 guests feasted on bison and listened to opera at an intimate, seated White House dinner for those representing the 42 nations in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. Across town, in the soaring four-story hall of the Building Museum, a crowd of more than 1,000 drank in the diversity of the nation's capital at an event intended to show off the advantages of a pluralistic society.

As ever, the White House dinner was the invitation to snag, and the head table of more than 100 people – NATO and Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council leaders and spouses – was, for this night, truly the center of the world's stage.

"It's a great honor for Hillary and for me to welcome the largest group of world leaders ever to assemble in Washington here to the White House on this beautiful spring evening," said President Clinton. "Just a few years ago, a gathering of all the nations here in partnership would have been unthinkable. But we are all here tonight because we are thinking."

The dark cloud of the past two days appeared to have finally lifted. The leaders were smiling and chatting, pleased with the summit and ready to enjoy this historic night. "In a world full of both promise and peril – where for good or ill our destinies are more and more linked, we have chosen to be allies, partners and friends," Clinton said in his toast.

The applause that greeted the president was heartfelt and tinged, perhaps, with just a touch of relief. The logistics of getting all the guests through security, into the tent, and into their seats – not to mention properly introducing all the leaders – delayed the start of dinner until almost 10 p.m.

Each delegation from the 42 countries represented was allowed to send 10 people to the dinner, which was business dress instead of black-tie. The remaining 300 guests were drawn from the Cabinet, the departments of State and Defense and Congress and included a few other distinguished names. The White House did not release a guest list, but retired Gen. Colin L. Powell, Henry A. Kissinger, Alexander Haig, Robert J. and Elizabeth Dole and Strom Thurmond were spotted in the crowd.

"This is probably the greatest concentration of political power under one tent ever," said Latvian Ambassador Ojars Kalnins. "The symbolism seems appropriate."

Well, it was a big tent. So big, in fact, that it felt more like a wedding reception than a state occasion. The color scheme echoed NATO's blue flag: cream and gold tablecloths with a cobalt blue diamond pattern topped with cream Eisenhower china and centerpieces of blue hydrangea, blue delphinium and cream roses.

"It impresses me much," said Maj. Gen. Josef Scharli of Switzerland. "The serious show that you are offering is in an atmosphere of positive results, not cheap compromises."

For such an international gathering, the menu had a distinctly American touch. Guests began with an appetizer of chicken breast with sweet potato, corn and chili, then were served an entree of grilled filet of bison with baby vegetables and spring potatoes. The meal ended with something the White House called "NATO 50th Anniversary Cake" – presumably not a bombe of any sort.

After dinner, two American opera singers – baritone Thomas Hampson, who sang at the 1996 state dinner for French President Jacques Chirac, and soprano Renee Fleming – performed for the guests accompanied by the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra.

At the city government's showcase event, Washington Salutes NATO, there was no opera, no protocol and no seating fussiness. The recognizable guests clustered together right at the entrance. Poles peered at plates of refried beans, black olives and salsa and dived in. Members of the Latvian delegation pointed to a portrait of Frederick Douglass and talked about him, in their native tongue. Along about 10 p.m., a few brave souls eventually began dancing to the sounds of the Navy Commodores jazz ensemble.

The $300,000 party, underwritten by corporate and private donations, was designed to be a showcase for the vibrant life of a nation founded to embrace all peoples, and that it did. The large hall was divided into sections representing the neighborhoods of Adams-Morgan, Anacostia and Capitol Hill, each featuring the aromas, flavors and music a visitor might find there, if he were able to break away from the summit.

"This is the most diverse event that NATO will see this weekend," said D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, "and that's important."

Joe Louis Ruffin, who worked on putting the party together, gestured at the crowd and said, between bites of catfish, "This is truly representative of D.C. Downtown, uptown. Young, old. Yellow, white, black and brown. This is what America is about."

Mayor Anthony A. Williams, who hosted the party, made his own bid for independence by comparing NATO to the working partnership among his staff, the control board and the City Council. As in the alliance, he said, "We can evaluate our own mistakes."

Connoisseurs of diplomatic events liked the feel of the Building Museum bash, where guests bearing invitations walked through the doors without any security check. Jurij Rifelj, a press attache with the Embassy of Slovenia here, praised the rare beef on the table but complained "there is no Jack Daniels. This is America. When in Rome – . . . ." Hundreds of the unattached and young made the party into a Saturday night mixer, albeit an upscale one. Sadaf Ardestani, 28, who works in Vice President Gore's office, was writing down hot night spots for Gulli Thordarson to visit. Thordarson, here with a VISTA program, worked on her to escort him personally, with this promise: "When you come to Iceland, I'm going to take very good care of you."

Powell, before party-hopping over to the White House, told the Building Museum crowd that he had done his part to constrain communism and recalled a meeting with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. "He looked across the table at me and said, 'I'm very, very sorry, General, but you'll have to find a new enemy,' " recalled Powell. "And that is when I knew we had succeeded."

While the NATO leaders met in the Mellon Auditorium yesterday afternoon, their spouses were hustled about Washington for luncheons and teas. First lady Hillary Clinton had all the other NATO wives to the Yellow Oval Room in the White House for lunch; Tipper Gore hosted a luncheon for spouses of the foreign and defense ministers and other dignitaries at the vice president's residence.

Staff writers Michael H. Cottman and Sylvia Moreno contributed to this report.