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to ask all these other widows. At would have made quite a crowd of widows for whom you had to go and get extra men. It would have brought in an element of people who were not really in the family, so to speak.

It was, of course, nothing but an ordinary state dinner. I realized suddenly that most of these Cabinet officers and their wives had never been to a state dinner—that is, the ones who are presently (1952) Cabinet officers. Mr. Truman didn't hold them apparently. Mrs. Brannan said to me, “you know, I'm really quite exited. I've never been to one of these state dinners before.” I was a little surprised, and tach some other one of them said the same thing to me. I realized that we who were the old timers were the only ones thoroughly familiar with them. They all run like clockwork. They're all just alike. The President doesn't run them. They're run by the military and naval aides and the Chief of Protocol of the State Department. The President just says, “Make it an all-out state dinner.” You know how important it is by whether they use the gold plate, whether you eat with a gold fork or a silver fork. This was gold plate, gold flatware, as well as gold serving dishes.

There was a huge table. I don't know how many sat down, as I didn't even count, but it must have been well over seventy or eighty with wives. It was a bi company run like any other state dinner. The only thing that made it even a little unusual was