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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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range and speed, which Seversky avocated.

Well, the book said that we were very far behind in our planes, that we had nothing comparable to the Spit fires or the Hurricanes which had saved Great Britain in the fall of '40, and that now that we were in the war that we could be defeated unless we were able to outmatch the Germans in the air, because whoever controlled the air would not be defeated.

I talked to Albert about this book and said to him that I felt he ought to read it, that our defense planning wasn't emphasizing the right kind of weapons, and Albert said he didn't think I could possibly be right, that I must be mistaken. And we had a really knock-down, drag-out discussion about the whole matter, not a fight, but really a very, very violent discussion about what were the possibilities about this. He sat down, and I said, “All I ask you to do”--and I really made it an enormous issue, all the influence I could summon to have with him--“is read the book.” Well, as he really cared about me he said, “All right, I'll read the book,” but he was sure that I was crazy.

So, he read the book, and he was convinced; he was shocked beyond words, and he decided that he would like to know Seversky. Seversky I didn't know, and I went to hear him speak. I went up to him and gave him my name and said I wished that he would come to see me and meet my husband. He said he knew my husband--he'd evidently met him someplace, at a cocktail party or something like that, but Albert had no idea about this. Albert met him. He





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