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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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ought to be done about the Italian situation--it isn't the official line of the State Department, but in private conversation he'll agree with you. I think he had some kind of a talk with somebody in the State Department.

At any rate, you know the reaction was instantaneous. He delivered the speech. The newspapermen caught this line-- which really was quite bland, if you read it. It was cabelled in shortened form to the world Press, and Byrnes read it in the local papers. And he hit the ceiling--just hit the ceiling.

It was, you know, a man in whom he had no special confidence, to whom he did not feel specially bound to, trying to tell him what to do when he was in the midst of the most delicate situations, and taking a line which was contrary to what Byrnes believed to be the proper foreign policy of the United States. It was, after all, Byrnes's duty to know what that policy was.

Interviewer:

Did you ever talk to Byrnes about this?

Perkins:

Oh, no. I never talked to him.

Interviewer:

Did you ever talk to Truman about it?

Perkins:

No--wait a minute, did I? Yes, I did. I talked to him some weeks later. You remember that Byrnes telephoned to him from Europe, wherever he was, and raised the ceiling





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