At the height of the crisis, Buchman said, 'We are internationally discredited,' and went away to be alone. He returned a few hours later saying that the whole situation would be 'a sounding-board to the nation'.

Seven years later, Henry van Dusen, who had spoken up for Buchman's colleagues before the committee but had distanced himself soon after, estimated that Buchman had been left with 'not over a half-dozen persons on both sides of the Atlantic' prepared to work with him.23 This was a ridiculous underestimate, but one which showed how deeply the affair had affected the Princetonian mind.

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