"Take Care of My Boy"

In his place in the vortex of the crisis last week, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was suddenly stricken with acute abdominal pains and moved to Walter Reed Army Hospital. There Dulles, 68. lay on the operating table for 2 1/2 hours while surgeons snipped a piece of tissue about 1 3/4 inches in diameter from his large intestine, bottled it and shot it by pneumatic tube to the hospital's pathological labs for a routine biopsy. Next day the surgeons reported their finding: cancer of the lower intestine. But they added: there is "no evidence whatsoever of extension of this lesion to any other organ." At the White House the President issued a statement praising the work of his "invaluable associate." Until Dulles could resume his full duties, said Ike (hopeful estimate: six weeks), the "splendid State Department staff headed by Herbert Hoover Jr. will operate in his stead." Later Sunday morning Ike dropped in on Dulles to talk foreign policy for 15 minutes. As he left, the President turned and said quietly to the senior surgeon: "Take good care of my boy. I need him."

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