John L. Lewis, Strategist

In his Washington office, John Lewis sat enthroned before a map of the world, his shoulders blotting out whole oceans. Of the Western Hemisphere, only Alaska was visible over his white-streaked haystack of hair. He had assumed a new role: military strategist. If only, he muttered wistfully, "it were in my power to command. . . ."

Last week he remembered a stag dinner which he had attended recently with several Senators, an Army general and a Navy admiral. He had told them what he would do.

He would strip the Western seas of British and U.S. vessels--leaving the Germans momentarily free to roam and raid --while he concentrated an armada in the Pacific. "With this great armada, perhaps 300 miles wide, I would sweep down the seas towards Japan and I would blast every Japanese flag out of the path."

Mouthing an unlit cigar, Lewis swung his arms in a swimmer's breast stroke, swatting Jap ships down. He would sweep on southward, he had told the open-mouthed diners, until all Japan's conquests had been retaken and the Japs' power utterly destroyed. Then he would attend to Germany. "Then would come the vengeance," Lewis thundered.

"When I had spoken these words in that room," he recalled, "there was a tremendous silence. Not anyone said a word. . . . Suddenly the Navy admiral turned to me. 'Mr. Lewis,' he said, 'you're right.' Then the Army general turned towards me. 'Mr. Lewis, you're right. That's the way we should do it.' "

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