The "War and Peace "affair
The operation would have done credit to Her Majesty's Secret Service. After four weeks of top-secret negotiations, two of Great Britain's most illustrious engineering companies, Rolls-Royce and Vickers, last week announced plans for a merger that was expected to create a company with annual sales of $1.3 billion. Like any good covert operation, the deal had a code name: War and Peace. The Tolstoyan title was appropriate. Vickers Ltd., code-named War, produced the Spitfire, which helped win the Battle of Britain. Rolls-Royce Motors, nicknamed Peace, has been building...