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He wanted to know whether it was that or whether you had an official piece of business that required the President's understanding and OK. So, in general, it would be a good idea to tell the appointment secretary what it was you had in mind.
When the President spoke to Congress (after returning from Yalta) I thought his voice was very clear. That was the first time he had ever spoken sitting down, you remember. He apologized. It was the first reference he had ever made to his incapacity, to his impediment, and he did it in the most charming way. I remember it gripped my throat. I remember choking up, to realize that he was actually saying, “You see, I'm a crippled man.”
He had never said it before, and it was one of the things that nobody ever said to him or ever mentioned in his presence. It wasn't done. It couldn't be done. He had to bring himself in full humility to say it before Congress: “I ask you to pardon me for sitting down. After all, it's seventy pounds of steel on my legs when I stand up, and I've been on quite a voyage, and I feel just a little fatigued.”
That was the first time he said it, and of course it made a great impression. But he spoke very well that day, I thought - very well, very clearly, very coherently.
Has anything come to you, out of all you've read about Yalta, that you could bring in here? I don't know what to
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