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It was no enthusiastic assent, but that was the sober judgment of the majority. There probably were some who said things to the contrary, but I don't recall who they were. They certainly didn't disagree with any vigor, because if they said it with vigor I should have recalled it.

I was interested because when the President came to me he looked surprised at my reaction, as though I might not think we ought to go to an all out defense of the British, which I did think and said so. This was stirring because I think every person there felt deeply disturbed and deeply responsible. Although most of us knew it was an area of action in which we could not give competant advice, we knew that the President was seeking our moral advice and our reasonable advice, our advice based on reasoning from what we did know - not what we knew about military strategy, not what we knew about foreign affairs, but what we knew about life. He was testing through us what most decent people would be likely to feel and think in this sitatuion, partly to get a political estimate and evaluation of what the public reaction would be if we did go to the support of the British at Singapore, and what would be the opposition reaction if we did, and what would be the public reaction if we let the British perish at Singapore and didn't do anything. That was apparently the alternative. The British would be knocked to smithereens at Singapore if they didn't have help.