WHEN the world crisis shifted last week to the Formosa Strait, Kansas-born, Philippines-bred Jim Bell, chief of TIME'S Hong Kong bureau, was right on the spot. Riding a Chinese Nationalist supply ship for Quemoy, he had just clambered over the side into a landing barge when Communist gunboats launched a surprise night attack. Getting ashore after a hair-raising trip under Red fire, he "sprinted up the beach as fast as an aging correspondent in blue button-down collar, British slacks and a pair of loose loafers could sprint." Three days later, airlifted off Quemoy by a Nationalist plane that took off under the nose of Communist guns, Bell was in Formosa learning from President Chiang Kai-shek in an exclusive interview that the U.S. Navy would convoy Nationalist supply vessels to Quemoy. Fast as his loafers could carry him, he sprinted aboard Vice Admiral Wallace M. Beakley's Seventh Fleet flagship Helena to accompany the first U.S. daylight escort to Quemoy. For the product of Bell's sprints, see FOREIGN NEWS, The Turn of the Screw and Convoy for Quemoy.

GENEVA, a place where statesmen once felt in command of history, was jammed last week with men who shape the world. As 5,000 scientists from 67 countries met for the second U.N. Atoms for Peace conference, the fission-and-fusion future unfolded in a staggering display of brains and machinery. Nobody topped the U.S. effort, a hugely successful reactor exhibit spiced with news that the world's first controlled thermonuclear reaction may have been achieved at Los Alamos. For a report on one of the biggest scientific meetings ever held, see SCIENCE, Monster Conference.

IKE the weatherman, political forecasters have need for ultrasensitive barometers. Partisan winds can shift suddenly, quickening hopes in one camp, dashing dreams in the other. Poll Taker George Gallup's moistened finger has sensed a freshening Republican breeze that could promise more campaign thunder and lightning than the Democrats had predicted. See NATIONAL AFFAIRS, Changing Campaign. And nowhere is a worrying Democrat more worried about changing political pressures than in California. See NATIONAL AFFAIRS' cover story, Just Plain Pat.

A BLARE of bands and crackling orders shattered the pineland quiet near Colorado Springs. The giant $133 million motel-like complex of aluminum and glass was ready at last. Into the U.S. Air Force Academy marched 1,148 cadets to face a tough, four-year program with the broadest curriculum yet devised for future U.S. military leaders. For news of their first days, their curious customs, and lingo as well, see EDUCATION, Home of the Doolies.

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