Harry Truman kept smiling, but his wife was tuckered out. Gamely they had pumped more than 1,200 hands of foreign diplomats, U.S. Cabinet officers, Congressmen and their wives. Last week's annual White House diplomatic reception—the second since the war—was, as usual, peacock-splendid, stiff with protocol and hardly hilarious.
First to handshake his way past the Trumans in the white & gold East Room was the dean of Washington's diplomatic corps, Brazil's Ambassador Carlos Martins, accompanied by his sculptress wife, Maria, and their handsome, 19-year-old daughter Nora. Portly Ambassador Martins bore up bravely in tight-fitting full-dress uniform of dark green, covered with...
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