TO get the complete story of General Thomas Dresser White required that TIME talk at length to the Air Force generals who make plans and decisions for White's global striking force. But fast-moving airmen are not always easy to corner. The Washington Bureau's Edwin Rees was lucky enough to catch White on the ground, persuaded Mrs. White to order him home early from his office one afternoon, interviewed the general over the bowl of oyster stew that Mrs. White had prepared for him. The Los Angeles Bureau's John Koffend flew to SAC headquarters in Omaha to talk with SAC Commander Thomas S. Power, discovered that Power had just flown in from Washington, was set to fly out to Europe, was too busy to see him. At 3 a.m. from-his hotel room, Koffend fired off a telegram petitioning General Power for an interview. Six hours later he was sitting in Power's office.

To talk to Vice Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay, Contributing Editor Peter Bird Martin flew from New York to Buenos Aires, asked to fly home with LeMay aboard his record-setting KC-135 jet tanker. LeMay agreed to take him only if wind and temperature would permit his heavily loaded jet to leave Ezeiza Airport's short runway safely with Martin's extra weight (187 Ibs.) aboard. He ordered Martin to report back to the plane at 5:30 next morning. In a cool dawn, Martin discovered conditions were favorable, climbed aboard, was able to radio TIME'S Washington Bureau that the general was being interviewed at 40,000 ft. over the Caribbean. See NATIONAL AFFAIRS, The Power for Now.

GATHERING pictures and background material on North America's radar defense system required even more travel. Photographer Lawrence Lowry was sent first to Alaska and the western end of the DEW line, then to Baffin Island, Labrador and Newfoundland. With his Arctic pictures in hand just before ice, fogs and darkness of the northern winter set in, he went on to installations in southern Canada, the U.S. and (by planes, blimp, helicopters and ships) to radar picket lines out at sea.

Meanwhile, to gather material for the text, Montreal Correspondent Byron Riggan made the first visit of any reporter to the Mid-Canada line. Other TIME Correspondents visited DEW line sites in Alaska, interceptor bases, Nike batteries and lonely aircraft control and warning stations from Cape Cod to Southern California, and interviewed NORAD's commanders at Colorado Springs. See SCIENCE, NORAD: Defense of a Continent.

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