The sound of the katydids began on Monday; Washington shrilled with their guesses and contradictions. That day on the dot of 4, small and anonymous-looking in an unpressed grey suit, the Prime Minister of Britain walked into the White House and shook hands with the President. A few minutes later, Clement Attlee and Harry Truman strode down the corridor and into the green-draped Cabinet Room where Franklin Roosevelt had consulted with Winston Churchill in other crisis days.
Around the big (20 feet long) table were gathered the advisers. Among them, on Harry Truman's side,...