In the book-lined study of a Georgetown home, two men who frankly dislike each other sat down for a frank conversation. The host was Secretary of State Dean Acheson. His guest was tart-tongued Styles Bridges of New Hampshire, the Senior Republican Senator after the ailing Arthur Vandenberg, and the man who had vowed to "get Acheson."
Dean Acheson's invitation to Bridges was more than a gesture toward restoring bipartisanship in the nation's foreign policy. Country by country, Acheson ticked off to Bridges some of the danger spots in the cold war—Korea, Berlin, Burma. The most dangerous of all, said...