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Frances Perkins - Interview 95, side 2 - 5 May, 1955. This interview taken on a tape-recorder.
I'm as vague about the 1944 convention as if I hadn't been there, and yet I'm sure I was.
You don't remember anything about this letter that Roosevelt sent? It's in Grace Tully's book. I guess that's about the best account of it--the letter he sent to Jackson from Indiana. I think Jackson was on the Policy Committee of the Convention. He said, “I will not dictate to the Convention. If I were choosing, I would choose from this list of the following--“ and he named three names. According to Miss Tully, the letter which he dictated and signed listed the names in this order: “Wallace, Truman, Byrnes.”
And he knew Byrnes couldn't be nominated.
Bob Hannegan received the letter out in Chicago, according to some accounts, and issued the word that the listing was “Truman, Wallace, Byrnes.”
Just a little misleading.
You could list thousands of names, but choice number one is the President's choice. According to the way the story goes, that's how Truman got it.
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