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I said, “No, certainly, it doesn't have to be next week. It's at your convenience naturally.”

“I'll think about it.”

This went on for weeks and weeks. I didn't want to press him, but I broached the subject occasionally. The answer would be, “Well, I haven't had time to think of it.” Finally I got inwardly uneasy about it because I had to make some personal plans. There was plenty of work I could have, plenty of jobs I could have, if I could say yes or no right away. I wasn't going to leave the President in the lurch. I wasn't going to walk out to his embarrassment, or to force him to a difficult political decision of who to appoint, particularly as I realized that this AF of LCIO situation was putting him in a more and more difficult and embarrassing position. They were now politically aware, and both of them would be at him with suggestions. I was aware of that and didn't just want to walk out.

Also, there had been so much criticism of him that for anybody to abandon the administration was bad publicity. Also, people were not yet reconciled to the war. It was becoming more and more ominous. If I had walked out and had said just two or three well chosen things, I would at once have been made a popular saint. “This woman didn't want war. Brave woman. She walks out because she doesn't want war.”