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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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What's the other one out there? And the President had said, “I really believe that the Russians will be satisfied with the status of a free port. I think if we can assure them a free port, all along the whole Asia coast, and an increasing number of free ports, I believe that will satisfy them.”

And I remember his saying, “Well, and I think Winston will go along, too, don't you, Cordell?”

Cordell would nod in this wise way of his, you know.

We didn't know exactly what he was going to negotiate, of course, but we knew that was the general purpose, and we assumed that it was to meet Churdill and the Russians. Well, I guess we knew it, but it was where and how that nobody knew. I had a feeling that it was a dreadful burden for him. It was a terrible load for him to pull.

I remember thinking, as we sat through that service, “This is the cross the Lord has laid upon him, and he's got to expend every ounce of energy he's got to pull this thing through. He's got to do it.”

Your instinct is to protect him, but he can't be protected. He has to do it. This is the place he's called to, and he's got to do it. I mean, I thought of him as I would think of myself under that or similar circumstances which I had faced before. “You have to do it, because you are there, and you have the responsibility.” And there was no earthly way of saying, “This man can't because He's sick.





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