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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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that he could have made a deal to do it in the convention.

Q:

Then if this had happened, would Stevenson have been happy as Secretary of State?

Lasker:

Yes, I think he would have been delighted to have been Secretary of State.

Q:

Although as it turned out Kennedy was his own Secretary of State.

Lasker:

Yes, but maybe he wouldn't have been happy in the job, but I think he would have liked the idea of the job. I even think that--well, I'm not sure that if he had been offered the Vice Presidency whether he would have accepted it or not, because, as you see, as of December '63, he's said that if asked, he would accept. So, this is somewhat different.

I think I should go back a little bit on the situation on the floor of the convention. On Tuesday I realized that if Humphrey could start a break-away, that it was Stevenson's only possibility to prevent Kennedy from getting enough support, or that on the second ballot would make people feel that Stevenson would have a good chance, if neither Kennedy nor Johnson made it on the first ballot. Monroney and Doyle, after Humphrey came out for Stevenson, that Tuesday night, were frantic to find second-ballot help on the floor, and they felt that they were making progress on lining up votes for Stevenson on the second ballot and were rather optimistic about it. But, as the evening went on,





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