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didn't print the rumor, but came to see him and asked if he were going. To them he made the statement that, yes, the President had asked him to do this. He had slept on it and given it serious consideration, but he had had to face the matter in terms of his duty. “After all, I am a soldier. I know my duty. I cannot desert the NRA now. Yes, the President says it's in fine shape and I take some pride in it, but I can't desert it now. I know what must be done. I shall stay right here with it and do my duty.”

So the President got Johnson's answer via the ticker tape. He didn't get it from Johnson. He learned from McIntyre, who came rushing in with the ticker tape, that Johnson was telling the press he wasn't going to Europe.

I don't think Johnson understood that he was being pushed out, but I think he suspected it. He had either figured it out, or it had been figured out for him by somebody whom he had talked to in the course of the afternoon. It may have been Robbie. I never would put it above her, because she, of course, wanted him to stay. She had a job she liked. There was a bit of self-interest in it with her. She suspected that if he went away somebody else would get hold of NRA. If he went to Europe, no matter how important the mission, NRA would be in somebody