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Frances Perkins - Interview 95, side 2 - 5 May, 1955. This interview taken on a tape-recorder.

Miss Perkins:

I'm as vague about the 1944 convention as if I hadn't been there, and yet I'm sure I was.

Interviewer:

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.”

Perkins:

And he knew Byrnes couldn't be nominated.

Interviewer:

Bob Hannegan received the letter out in Chicago, according to some accounts, and issued the word that the listing was “Truman, Wallace, Byrnes.”

Perkins:

Just a little misleading.

Interviewer:

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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