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No.

Anyway, he was reading the Washington Post that morning on the plane and I happened to have -- which was not at all infrequent -- a front page, bylined story in the Post. It was toward the end of my career, before I was drafted into the army.

And Krock turned to me and said, “Well, you know, this is a very good story. If you want a job on the New York Times in the Washington Bureau, why, I'd be glad to give you one.” Or words to that effect. He knew me, you see, by sight. After all, we had seen each other occasionally. But this was just about the first time in four years that Krock had acknowledged my presence in Washington!

At that time I might have taken him up on it, because by that time I really had proved myself on the Post and also The Trenton Times as a competent newspaper man, and I was perfectly happy to go to the Times. I might well have accepted Krock's offer -- but at that point I was so near going into the army that it didn't make any sense at all. And I think I told him that. In any case, this was probably the greatest compliment that I'd ever received.

It's a very nice story because it starts when you wanted to prove yourself.

I was, incidentally, ready to leave the Post, too, because I was getting more and more disgusted with the Post's failure to live up to my ideas of what a good serious