Appointed last week to the top administrative post in NATO: Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian statesman and longtime champion of European unity. He will succeed able, self-effacing Lord Ismay, who retires as Secretary-General in April. Spaak will be given more power than Ismay.
Background: Born in Brussels on Jan. 25, 1899, Spaak, like his native land, is an amalgam of two widely divergent strains. His Flemish father was one of Belgium's best-known artists, a poet, playwright and director of the Brussels Royal Opera. His mother, a Walloon, was Belgium's first woman Senator, the daughter of one of the nation's great 19th century liberal leaders...