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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Well, those are the major ones.

In 1959 Stevenson's position became very hard for the public to understand. As you know, Kennedy was already running energetically and campaigning really and spending a great deal of his time away from the Senate. People were asking Stevenson constantly whether or not he would run, and he was constantly giving answers that were difficult to understand in contrast to the answer he made down in '63 about the Vice Presidentiall...

Q:

That was very clear.

Lasker:

Yes. His attitude was really too complicated for people to understand. He said he felt that other people should have their chance and that he would be available but he was not a candidate. Well, this kind of talk people really didn't get.

Q:

What was his real conviction at that point? Do you know?

Lasker:

I think that he was at that point undecided, that he partly thought that he might not have a chance, that he partly hoped he would have a chance and be nominated in spite of everything. He was ambivalent, truly, about the matter, I think. He probably would give an entirely different account of what he felt, but it was confusing to most people, including people close to him.

Early in '60 he made a trip to South America and returned from this trip to make some speeches in April that made him sound





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