There was not a political germ in the room. Secretary of State George C. Marshall looked at the representatives of 41 nations, including Russia, and remarked dryly: "Thank God, your purpose here, without recriminations, without undue argument, is solely to do good in the world." The 2,000 doctors, scientists and public health officials had gathered in Washington, D.C. to wage biological warfare against a common enemy, tropical disease.
Slowing Malaria. The best news concerned man's No. 1 enemy in the tropics: malaria. Every year, malaria strikes 300,000,000 people, and kills 3,000,000 of them. But with the now common household spray DDT, "it...