Lanky Neil McElroy eased through a cluster of photographers in the White House conference room and shook the hand of the darkly handsome man standing by the fireplace. "Take charge, boy," he said, with a broad grin. "This is what you call the first team going in." A few minutes later, while President Eisenhower and the Pentagon's top brass looked on approvingly, Thomas Sovereign Gates Jr., 53, was sworn in as the nation's seventh Secretary of Defense.
The contrast between Secretary Gates and outgoing Secretary McElroy could hardly be greater. McElroy (who goes...
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