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OCR Page 1 of 217/9/53 - Wire I - p.l
DA. This morning, I thought we would begin with the January period of 1949, and take
up the things that happened from ny going into the Department again. Last week, when we
met, Mac said something about the desirability of talking a little bit on the transition.
So I thought I would do that. You remember that I pointed out that when Bob Lovett took
over from me, he came down from for a month before he took the oath of office, sat in my
office and attended meetings, read all the papers, and went through all the motions of
being Undersecretary, so that when the day came and he took the oath, he was doing things
he was familiar with. We had urged upon him the desirability of his doing that for us,
but he didn't do it, and the transition was not as helpful as it might have been.
Bob
was rather cautious, and felt that he could not talk with me about anything that was of
any great importance until I was confirmed by the Senate. We had hearings that took quite
a little time, and I was only confirmed shortly before the Inauguration, so that about all
I knew was that he was working with the ambassadors of the NATO countries trying to draw
up the North Atlantic Treaty, but just where he was in it, and what the problems were, I
didn't know, and he hadn't told me much about anything else. I hato had the impression
that he would be willing to stay on for a while with Jim Webb, but Bob did not want to do
that. He left almost innediately after the Inauguration, I think within a day or so, and
Jim wasn't confirmed for a couple of weeks. And therefore we had rather an abrupt change.
Q. Did General Marshall figure in the process?
DA. General Marshall didn't figure at all. General Marshall wasn't there. He had gotten
out of the hospital, and I think had gone down to Porto Rico to recuperate from his kidney
operation, and I never saw General Marshall at all until he came back to Washington
some
months later. One of the things I thought might be amusing here
5 SERVICE CATIONAL
would be to take this aypointment book of mine, and run over the days until you cone to
the
21st of January. and go on for a few days, to get the difference of life that happens
rather suddenly on one of them. The thing opens in the 3 of January which was the first
is
Monday, and there you find everything/full of the Commission on the Organization of the
Executive Branch of the Government. On Monday. I meet all morning on that. 2 o'clock
to
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