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And I began to see right away that Lewis had no ideas. He had nothing to contribute to the President's program. He had no suggestions to make to the President with regard to policy, major or minor. He just wanted to be consulted.
I tested him. He had no ideas at all. The ideas that I had suggested were new to him. He'd say, “They're good, very good.” He didn't have any others. And I asked him--I questioned him about what policies he would recommend, and what ideas he wanted to lay before him.
He didn't have any. He just wanted to be consulted. He wanted the vainglory of being asked, and then having it known to the world that he was asked.
Well, I thought very seriously about this when it was over, because he was very, very angry. I tried to extract a promise from him to be very cautious and say nothing of this, and then I would try and see that the President found some way of seeing him before too long. He couldn't see him until he came back to Washington.
But, as soon as the President came back to Washington-- I even thought about going down to Warm Springs to see him, but then I found he was coming back before the end of the week--I went over to see him. I said to the President, “I have something awful to tell you. It's going to be a great shock to you, because you have thought in the last six months or so that John D. Lewis was a fine supporter
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