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mean to do anything. With every hour that passes I become more convinced that they are not playing in the open, that what they say is equivocal and has two meanings to it. As soon as you proceed on what is the desirable meaning, they then switch to another meaning. I'm convinced that they don't intend to make any honorable agreement with us about anything, or come to any understandings. I think this is useless and futile. They are the worst people I ever saw.”
He burst into a denunciation of the people who were here as envoys, particularly Nomura and Kurusu. As I've said, he was more disgusted with Nomura than Kurusu, because, I think, he had known Nomura before and Nomure had been Western educated and Hull thought he was in a better position psychologically to really say what he meant and to trust Hull to speak the truth. He felt that Nomura was being very double-faced, very evasive, was pulling wool over eyes, and something wrong was going on. He didn't know what it was, but was sure they were not intending to come to any agreement. He was very disgusted with them and used the strongest language I ever heard him use, very large and impressive blasphemy in description of what he thought of these Japanese and their whole entourage.
That, of course, started the Cabinet conversation at once into the area of the war that was then going on in the Pacific, with questions as to what the Japanese were going to
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