The Press: President's Breakfast

One morning last November President Getulio Vargas of Brazil sat down as usual to a dish of mamau (a Brazilian fruit that looks like cantaloupe), unfolded a newspaper with an expectant smile. It was the second anniversary of Brazil's Estado Novo—the semi-Fascist State that President Vargas created in 1937—and he looked forward to a paean of headlines in Brazil's press.

Slowly his smile faded. Getulio Vargas put down his spoon, opened one Rio de Janeiro paper after another, tossed each aside. In most, Year III of his Estado Novo began with no more than a few casual lines on page one. In...