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Will Woodin had died when this had happened and we were in an interim period. Bruere said, “You like Henry Morgenthau. He certainly wants to be Secretary of the Treasury. Hardly anybody else does.” I think the President asked Bruere to be and he wouldn't touch it. He said, “Hardly anybody else is willing to even think of it. Henry Morgenthau wants to be. Therefore, he'll be a good one. Only the people who want to do a job make good officials.”
Many people felt that Roosevelt betrayed them. For instance, the London Economic Conference is used as an example of his underhanded tactics. You can't take that as an example. A great many funny things went on at that time. The story that Cordell Hull tells and the story that Raymond Moley tells are probably both partly true, but neither one of them is more than partly true. There are some English members of that conference who tell a story which is quite different from either one of the others, but is more nearly true than anything they tell. There were a great many things operating.
The groundwork had been laid for the London Economic Conference before Roosevelt came in. I'm pretty sure that FDR never understood what it was going to be about. It never was made clear to him by anybody.
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