What a strange coincidence, or not so strange. Sheldon Whitehouse
this week defeated Lincoln Chafee for a Senate seat for Rhode Island. It
turns out that Sheldon's father, Charles Sheldon Whitehouse, a career
diplomat, was the roommate at Yale University of John Chafee, Lincoln's
father and predecessor in that Senate seat. The new Senator's
grandfather, also named Sheldon Whitehouse, was a career diplomat who
served as Minister to Guatemala and Colombia. Charles was one of the
ablest U.S. career diplomats of the post-World War II era, and served as
Deputy Ambassador in Vietnam and as Ambassador to Laos and Thailand.