Nation: Three Cheers in Dearborn

For Ford, for Petersen—and for victory in a Pinto trial

Around the horseshoe-shaped table in the board room on the twelfth floor of the Ford Motor Co. headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., last week, 18 normally staid directors gave out three loud hurrahs. The first was for Henry Ford II, who retired after nearly 35 years as the company's boss and was succeeded as chairman by Philip Caldwell, 60. The second was for Donald Petersen, 53, who replaced Caldwell as president. The third was for the automaker's acquittal that same day in Winamac, Ind., on...