In bright mid-morning sunshine one day last week the Presidential C-54, the Sacred Cow, put down at an airfield several miles from Plymouth. Harry Truman had insisted that his homeward trip from Potsdam include a visit with England's King.
He bounded out of the plane briskly, setting foot on English soil for the first time in his lifeĀand for the first visit of a U.S. President to Britain since Woodrow Wilson's triumphal tour in 1919. There were few Britons on hand to cheer Harry Truman. "Operation Exodus" (the military-code designation for the visit) had unavoidably run into a snafu. Ground...