THE CONGRESS: A Great American

It was Jan. 10,1945. A big, white-haired man with an owlish look rose at his desk in the U.S. Senate and began to read from the manuscript before him. His resonant voice rolled across the quiet chamber: "Each of us can only speak according to his little lights—and pray for a composite wisdom that shall lead us to high, safe ground." So Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg, of Michigan, swung into a 39-minute oration which galvanized the Senate.

U.S. security, he argued, could be won only by continuing to act in concert with other nations. "I do not believe that any nation...

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