U.S. plenipotentiaries have had trouble with sartorial protocol since the days of Benjamin Franklin. When Minister Franklin appeared before the King of France in plain brown velvet knee breeches he was called uncouth. When Ambassador Charles Gates Dawes refused to expose his shanks to the Court of St. James's in knee breeches he stirred comment. When Ambassador Joseph Patrick Kennedy showed up at the same court in a tail coat, someone said he looked like "one of the less important waiters."
Ambassador John Gilbert Winant is almost as unpressed as Abraham Lincoln. Last week the Ambassador confessed his shortcomings:
"I really have no...
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