At 7 a.m., reporters of the U.S. and foreign press began gathering sleepily at the State Department. They were handed a little five-page booklet; the text of the North Atlantic Treaty was top secret no longer. The newsmen had two hours to get their questions ready. On the dot of 9 a.m., Secretary of State Acheson, the man who had the answers, faced the reporters.
Dean Acheson, brown-suited and carefully brushed, let photographers swirl and flash around him. Then for an hour he held forth. Quickly he read through the treaty's 14 articles....
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