The halls of Congress resounded last week with a strange and unfamiliar sound: praise of Secretary of State Dean Acheson. Some of his sharpest Republican critics led the chorus. "The job which Secretary Acheson did in presiding over the conference was outstanding," said California's William Knowland, who watched the San Francisco conference on the Japanese Treaty as an observer. "Commendable and brilliant," added New Jersey's H. (for Howard) Alexander Smith, an experienced adder. Even Ohio's Robert Taft conceded that Acheson had done a "very good job."
Harry Truman was turkey-proud. This shows, Truman told...