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Truman cackled with pleasure and said, “Do you mean that after all of these years on the lecture circuit you haven't learned the trick?" I said, “What trick?" He said, “It's the easiest thing in the world. When I come to one of these damn dinners--and you know how many I've had to go to in my life-- I call the chairman over. I say, 'Now, I don't want you to worry about me if you notice that I'm not eating anything tonight. When the food comes I'll just push it around with my fork. I'm on a diet and I'm not allowed to eat all of this stuff that's served at these banquets. So don't you worry about me.‘The chairman invariably says, 'Well, Mr. President, what can you eat?‘I answer, 'Well, I don't want to be any trouble to you, but what I should have, the doctor tells me, is steak with mushroom sauce.‘The chairman rushes over to the head waiter and they all have a hasty conference, shooting angry looks at me. I always get my steak.” I said, “That works great for you. You were President of the United States. They would let me go without dinner. That works for ex-Presidents, not for anybody else.”

I think that Harry Truman will go down as one of our fine Presidents. Here was a man who came through when he had to. I still remember the consternation when Roosevelt died-- that this ex-haberdasher was going to be President of the United States. But what a good job he did! Contrast him with Eisenhower, who was a well-meaning, pleasant, nice man, but didn't really know what was going on! His trusted Mr. John Foster Dulles is the man who set all of the foreign policy