People: Jan. 2, 1961

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The bad blood between two old men, Harry Truman, 76, and General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, 80, came to a boil again. On a TV chitchat program in Chicago, Truman was asked point-blank if he had ever been pressured to use the A-bomb during the Korean fighting. Taking dead aim at the general, whom he removed from his Korean-war command in 1951, Truman replied: "Yes, MacArthur wanted to do that ... He wanted to bomb China and Eastern Russia and everything else." Last week came a counter-volley from MacArthur. "Completely false [and] fantastic." said he. "Atom bombing in the Korean war was never discussed either by my headquarters or in any communication to or from Washington." Then, insisting that he re-entered "this controversial dispute . . . only to prevent a complete prevarication of history," MacArthur restated his old case against ex-Commander in Chief Truman. "Our failure to win the Korean war was a major disaster for the free world ... A great nation which voluntarily entered upon war and does not see it through to victory must ultimately suffer all the consequences of defeat."

At first, everything seemed to go wrong for Novelist Norman (The Naked and the Dead) Mailer, 37. Last month, in quick succession, Mailer got involved in a Manhattan nightclub brawl (the charge: disorderly conduct), stabbed his wife Adele after a long, late party (the charge: felonious assault), and was promptly committed to Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric observation. But soon things began to go right for him. Released from Bellevue as a sane man, Mailer went to court, happily heard the disorderly conduct charge dismissed. Though he still faces a hearing on the knifing charge, the only witness against Mailer is Adele, 35, who in the days immediately following the incident was on the critical list. Refusing to file charges against her husband, Adele recently rejoined him at home. Feeling better, Mailer by last week had even learned not to be a cop hater. Reported New York Post Columnist Murray Kempton: "One of his surprises in his trouble has been the courtesy and sympathy of the police."

It's an old American custom to decorate the Christmas card with a photo of the population explosion in the family. Few in Hollywood are better qualified to do so than Actor-Director José Ferrer and Songstress Rosemary Clooney, who posed beamingly with their three oldest tykes —Miguel José, 5 ; Maria Providencia, 4 ; Gabriel Vicente, 3 — while Rosemary held Monsita Theresa, 2, and Ferrer bear-hugged tiny Rafael Francisco, the eight-month-old newcomer.