If names make news (as the old saying goes), it is people who shape the news. Last week among all the thousands of news stories that were told around the world, there were three that owed their origin and their drama to their central personality:

ALMOST since the day he became king in 1951, Belgium's young Baudouin has been something less than an idol to his subjects. Dominated by his father, ex-King Leopold III, Baudouin was stiff and shy, seldom made his public feel any warmth toward him. Then came a three-week tour of the U.S.--without father. And a stunning surprise for the Belgians when Baudouin returned to Brussels last week. See FOREIGN NEWS, The Americanized King.

OF all the world's statesmen none is more famed for steely determination than Konrad Adenauer, the autocratic octogenarian who has ruled West Germany for the past ten years. When Adenauer two months ago decided to turn the West German chancellorship over to a younger man, his countrymen assumed that that was that. But last week there was colossal confusion as the world learned that Adenauer, too, can change his mind. See FOREIGN NEWS, An Old Man's Impulse.

UNDER the U.S. Constitution, the President appoints Government officials "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate " In the case of Cabinet members, the Senate has almost always confirmed nominations. It may yet remain for Lewis L. Strauss, up for Secretary of Commerce, to be the first Cabinet nominee turned down for reasons of personality alone. In a long career of public service, Strauss has distinguished himself. But he has a thorny, give-and-ask-no-quarter personality; he also has an implacable opponent of great talent and resolve. The result is Washington's highest drama -- played out on the Senate floor, in cloakrooms, at black-tie dinners, in the seats at Griffith Stadium. As written by Bill Bowen and edited by Champ Clark, see the cover story on The Strauss Affair.

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