THE NATION: Containment to Retaliation

A few sentences tucked into an Armed Forces Day address by Secretary of State Dean Acheson last week seemed to be the first open acknowledgment that the U.S. has at last moved on from containment to the more dynamic doctrine of retaliation.

Acheson seemed to be answering—and accepting, in a reserved sort of way—the vigorous call of Statesman John Foster Dulles for meeting Communist aggression "by retaliatory action of our own fashioning" (TIME, May 19). Said the Secretary: "There has been a widespread misunderstanding that what we are seeking to create is a static containment situation. This is not at...