ABSTRACT
The war seemed far away that summer of 1938. Walter Scott was married to the woman he loved and freed from one he loved no longer. He and Dr. Helen had emerged from their double divorces with most, though not all, of their friendships intact. Their financial future was secured, despite his costly divorce settlement, by the great success of his writing and Helen's sizable trust fund. The headlines in the press gave little support to the personal happiness he felt that summer. Britain and France were rearming for a war they dreaded and sought to avert at almost any cost. Parliamentary governments were torn by factionalism and seemed incapable of decisive action. Writing Lippmann just a few weeks after taking over his new post, John F. Kennedy related how he had told the British, in a speech shortly after his arrival, that "they must not get into a mess counting on us to bail them out.".
