Melting Himalayan snow and driving monsoon rains began the damage. The swollen Brahmaputra and Ganges Rivers spilled over one-third of East Pakistan, washing nearly 10 million people from their homes and destroying so many crops that famine seemed unavoidable and epidemics imminent. As Pakistan sent up distress signals last week, the U.S. responded as rapidly as it would to a cry for help from flooded Iowa. Within a few hours after President Eisenhower ordered U.S. Government agencies into action:
ΒΆ Dr. Alexander Langmuir, chief epidemic-fighter for the U.S. Public Health Service, and five...