Under President Truman's signature, as required by the law, a routine quarterly report on Lend-Lease was sent to Congress last week. Newsmen pounced on one pregnant paragraph. It said, in part: "If a debt approaching the magnitude of $42 billion were to be added to the enormous financial obligations that foreign governments have incurred for war purposes . . . it would have a disastrous effect upon our trade with the United Nations and hence upon production and employment at home."
News tickers clattered out headline-making leads. Example (by the Associated Press): "President Truman notified Congress today that the $42,000,000,000 . ....