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here, or actual American citizens. It was an organized propaganda and very effective.

I was told that also very strong German propaganda was going on in England and in France. Some of the content of the German propaganda in France, at least, was anti-American. There was apparently a feeling on the part of the Germans that the French might be looking for help from the Americans because we had come to their help in the First World War. So it was an elaboration of the “Yanks Aren't Coming” stuff. There was also much talk of the general perfidy of the Americans, their brash and uncultivated attitude.

At any rate, this matter was brought up at Cabinet meeting. I think perhaps Ickes brought it up, but it may not have been. The President himself might have brought it up. At any rate, any of us who had had any experience or information with this pushed into the common pool. The President said, “Well, I think we ought to have a Cabinet committee to look into this.” Henry Stimson had an awful lot of this information and some very strong ideas on the subject. Anyhow, the President appointed a committee to look into this, which was not announced publicly, I think, because I know we kept everything very hush-hush. We never exchanged documents, except a few memoranda that were kept in a separate file and kept locked up. They were not put in the general files of any department.