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Kenneth ClarkKenneth Clark
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Session:         Page of 763

revolt.

Clark:

And he didn't give a damn, apparently. I just wish that Truman had not given the order for the atomic bomb. I wonder if Roosevelt would have given that order? That's speculation.

Q:

Well, of course, he had instituted the developmental program, the Manhattan project.

Clark:

On the Einstein letter.

Q:

To come back to the march threat in the early 1940's, was it your understanding that Eleanor Roosevelt, even though she was friendly with A. Philip Randolph and Mary McLeod Bethune, at first did not encourage the march? In fact that the President himself asked her to go to talk to A. Philip Randolph to try to discourage him from going through with this threat?

Clark:

I've heard that. I don't know whether I heard that from Phil Randolph himself. But even if that were true, she didn't succeed.

Q:

Did you ever hear that he also asked La Guardia to intervene to discourage A. Philip Randolph from the march?

Clark:

Vaguely. There's no question that Roosevelt was doing everything he possibly could to get Randolph to behave. There's also no question that Randolph wouldn't behave.





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