Читать книгу An Affair of State онлайн

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"We took a chance on him before," the Secretary said under his breath.

"What's that, Mr. Secretary?" Matson asked.

"Nothing. I'd surmise that he probably was a platoon leader, or company commander. He got hurt."

Dannenberg inspected the sheet of paper before him, headed REPORT ON FORM 57, BAKER, JEFFERSON WILSON. "There's no record of his having been wounded," he said.

"The way I look at it," said Matson, "is like this. We need realists--tough-minded realists--in the Department today as we never needed them before. Now I know from his spot check that this boy isn't a Communist, or a radical, or anything. But this is war. And the Foreign Service Officers we send abroad at this time are on the front line." Matson held out his hands, gripping an imaginary rifle at the port position. "We don't want woolly-headed dreamers out there. Not that I've got anything against ideals and ethics, you understand. They're all right, at the proper time and place. But the men we send out to defend our system of free enterprise and our democratic way of life have got to be hard-headed realists."