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pretty hot stuff at one time or another. Lckes left in a blaze. There had been a great blaze and general renunciations all around. There was no blaze I left. I resigned July 1, 1945, as did Francis Biddle, Henry Morgenthau and a number of others who were in the hold-over. We did that by agreement. Truman had asked us to stay on until he was settled down and could think about things, so we all did very gladly, but naturally left our resignations on his desk. Then we opened up, talkin between ourselves and Steve early. We said, “Isn't July 1st about the best time?” So we all went out at that time. Our successors were sworn in. I don't think there was any row about any of those.
Nothing much was said of importance at the dinner. I talked with everybody. I doubt if anybody said anything as open as Dan Kimball did. There was no opening up of wounds at all. Everybody was very pleased to see everybody else. Everybody was full of good will. This was a farewell party. We were saying, “It was nice to have known you.” It was, in a way, kind of warm. You felt even warm about seeing Louis Johnson whom you didn't like and didn't trust. Nevertheless, he was a familiar face, and you'd shared many things with him. He'd done me a couple of favors, and I was to see him.
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