A Letter From The Publisher, Oct. 11, 1948

Last spring, when the Soviet Government used U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Walter "Beedle" Smith's suggestion that "the door is always open for full discussion and the composing of our differences" as a springboard for its own peace propaganda offensive, TIME Inc.'s Paris bureau chief, Andre Laguerre, cabled his analysis of the U.S. State Department's strategy in the affair:

"It is undeniable, of course, that Soviet trickery got the U.S. into a jam. Somehow, I can't get indignant about this trickery, any more than I can about the first baseman who hides the ball in...

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