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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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You see, very few of us knew that he was going away. The members of the Cabinet knew he was going somewhere. We didn't know he was going to Yalta, but we knew he was going somewhere, and that the mission was important. Well, we really knew that the Russians and the British were meeting with him, you see. We knew that much. But we didn't know where it was to be, or how he was to be conveyed, or any of those things. There were never made public, nor did any Cabinet officer try and find out. I mean, it was just better not to know. But at least we knew that it was a difficult and long journey, and an awful problem, and a very ticklish business that he had to do. That we knew. I mean, we knew how ticklish it was to keep the Russians cozy with us. Because that had been talked about in Cabinet meeting over and over again, how the Russians were likely to break away, and it was nip and tuck whether they could be kept. They were doing better, you know, and they were getting sore at this and sore at that. You know, one thing and another was very bad and theywere very unhappy about it.

We had Japan on our hands, and we knew that it was nip and tuck and the President had to persuade them. We'd ever discussed in Cabinet meeting the whole question of the status of Dairen and other Russian ports - what were some of the others? You know. Dairen is the one I remember.





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