National Affairs: The General's Successor

The Senate took exactly four minutes to confirm Robert Abercrombie Lovett as the new Secretary of Defense; it happened to be on Lovett's 56th birthday. There was only one hitch. North Dakota's isolated Bill Langer wanted to know whether this was the Robert Morss Lovett who had been investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1943.* Assured that it was not, Langer made the vote unanimous.

Over the last eleven years. Defense's Bob Lovett has held down three important top policy-making jobs, just a short taxi ride across Washington from Capitol Hill. But...

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