INVESTIGATIONS: A Question of Ethics

Harold Talbott, Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, wiped his lips on a fresh white handkerchief, picked up a typewritten statement, and began to read. Arkansas' Democratic Senator John McClellan, chairman of the Permanent Investigations Subcommittee, leaned forward in his chair, draping himself over his desk. Newsmen tensed, ready to spring for the nearest telephones. By that moment last week it was clear that Talbott had misused his position as Secretary of the Air Force to solicit business for Paul B. Mulligan & Co., the Manhattan clerical-efficiency firm in which he was a partner. Almost everyone in the subcommittee's...