Down at the bottom of the sea lay the merchantmen Robin Moor (May 21); the Sessa*; (Aug. 17); the Steel Seafarer (Sept. 7); the Montana*; (Sept. 11).
Damaged at a pier in Suez lay the Arkansan (Sept. 11). Unscathed, somewhere in the Atlantic, was the U.S. destroyer Greer, which a Nazi submarine had tried several times, unsuccessfully, to torpedo.
Against this background the President last week addressed the world. In a light grey seersucker suit, a mourning-armband for his mother on his sleeve, the President spoke in a low, grave tone, without histrionics, with...