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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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who was the British representative, always said the ships would never have been built, America would never have entered the war prepared and the British would have been plowed under before we got there if it hadn't been for Harry Hopkins. That's Arthur Salter's estimate of him. I don't suppose he would print it, but that's what he told me at the time it was going on. He said, “Nobody knows what Great Britain owes to Hopkins,” and he dealt with Harry all the time.

What you could get done by Hopkins couldn't be done by anybody else. The President couldn't accomplish what Hopkins could accomplish. That's literally true. It was probably because Hopkins didn't bind himself by the conventional proprieties when he started out. If it ought to be done, he didn't pay any attention to Ernie King, he went ahead and did it. After it was done he let Ernie King explode and said, “So what?” He just threw aside all the appropriate consultations through channels and just went and did what had to be done.

I think Sherwood, in a very extraordinary way, appreciated that duality of personality that Hopkins had. I think he does bring it out in his book, although I don't know that he says it just that way. It's a very





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