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Andrew HeiskellAndrew Heiskell
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Session:         Page of 824

Heiskell:

Yes. He was a great admirer of Dulles. It wasn't hidden. As a matter of fact Harry didn't hide things. He was very open about whatever he learned and how it affected him and so on and so on. I think I said earlier that he really tried to win them all by argument, not by trickery, or orders, or anything else. So he'd say, “Well, God damn it John Foster Dulles said,” and “I think John Foster Dulles is right. This is what we should be doing. This should be our policy.”

In the Truman days, no. No I don't know. I would guess, and here I'm guessing. I would guess that Clark Clifford who was extraordinarily close to Truman and later became a consultant to us, that Clark Clifford in his very, very subtle way would be getting to one person or another because that's how he became famous, really. His ability to do that. I think the only time Truman ever tried to do anything directly to anybody was to the New York Times about Margaret Truman's singing voice. [laughter] If you remember, he wrote a furious letter, “How could you say that about my daughter Margaret Truman? She's the greatest singer in the world.” Or something or the other. [laughter]

Kennedy was by far the most relentless pressurizer of them all. He would invite Luce and Grunwald, Donovan to the White House all the time. He cultivated Hugh Sidey on a weekly basis.

Q:

Hugh Sidey the Washington correspondent?

Heiskell:

Washington. He was, I think, then Bureau Chief. But I think he started the column on the presidency then. That by the way





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