Transcript of Princeton Seminar Discussion, Record 1

Record 1 Page 1 This discussion this morning will start in with my interview with President Truman when he asked me to be Secretary of State. This happened on the afternoon Way of November 22, 1948 and I, as Secretary, got a call from Mose Conrad, the Presi- dent's Secretary, asking me to stop in at Blair House on my way home. It was not unusual for the President to ask me to do this because at that time I was Vice Chairman of the Hoover Commission and we were trying to get our report finished by the end of the yearaso on my way home I stopped at Blair House and was shown Insured into the President's little private study in the Blair Lee House The President A and pointed out reasons why told me that which would be advisable in each case to do it. We thoff-had some durther talk. I remember one part of it very clearly. I said that although I seemed to have some qualifications in that I had been in the department to Tash so print and so unitial. I didn't feel that H was adequate to discharge. At that point the President said, "Dean, I suppose there are 10,000 people in the United States am who a re better qualified to be President or Secretary of State than I/or you are. The only difficulty is that we don't know whrn they are. and the fact of matter is that I have been elected President, and I am President, and I want you where 11 to be Secretary of State, and I guess that's the matter rests do I and that then sold him that I t hought it did rest there. He Mact suggested that I go home and This talk with my wife, I did that and came back the next afternoon, and antered a consfinity told him that I would do as he wished. We then had an operation which greatly good relations pleased him and I think had a great deal to do with the success of our operations an afterwards. He said he wanted to make the experiment as to whether or not it was possible in Washington to keep something secret, and the would like to keep this appointment secret until shortly before his inauguration. He wished to do this out for for several reasons, one of them had to do with General Marshall I told him This I felt that could be thaty(I could see that that was done on my part , of the operation. folt that the greatest difficulty in keeping things secret was in the White House because to although he thought he only spoke fore a few people, each one of those people