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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Part:         Session:         Page of 1143

At the end of July, I gave Mrs. Johnson two letters from George Washington, to give to the President for his birthday. Actually, I gave her one letter for herself and one letter for him. The letter for him was the announcement to the Governor of Connecticut, by George Washington, that the day before the Congress had established a Department of Foreign Affairs. And the letter for her was one inviting a relative to Nellie Custis's wedding. It was all in George Washington's hand. It was a charming letter, and I expected her to keep it. I think that, actually, she gave both of them to President Johnson.

I remember that they were giving a state dinner in honor of U Thant, the Secretary-General of the UN, and that they called me up to ask me if I wouldn't come to the state dinner at the beginning of August, but I was already planning to go to Europe and I didn't stay.

Well, by the time I returned from Europe on the 18th of September, the campaign was in full swing. I was horrified by the activities of Goldwater, but I could never believe that he was going to win, and by September it looked as if everybody else had decided the same thing. Didn't it?

Q:

Yes, itcertainly did.

Lasker:

The President was campaigning all over the United States, and Mrs. Johnson was planning, one day when I went down to see her, to go off on her Ladybird Special train to the South.





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