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a line through to the army installation.
As the situation wore on it became obvious that it was worse than anyone could possibly imagine. The sense of prevailing disorder was what struck me. We had been attacked, surprised, weren't prepared, had been badly damaged, the amount not yet to be estimated, and it was a really humiliating position for the United States to be in. I suppose there arose in everybody's mind, as it did in mine, “Where was that Japanese fleet that we knew to be out of the harbor? Where was it on this particular Sunday? Does anybody know?”
Before the story was more than half over Frank Knox came back from the other room, where he was obviously telephoning. He was very red in the face, flustered, with every mark of excitement on his face. He was flushed and excited and tense, barely holding himself in. He said, “Well, I've made all the arrangements, Mr. President. I'm going in the morning.”
Another thing that stands out clearly in my mind is the President's comment that Hull had been engaged in actual conversations with the Japanese representatives, who had been sent here only a short time previously, at the time when we heard of this attack on Pearl Harbor. He turned to Hull. Hull sat there looking perfectly grim. I can't say he was as white as a sheet, because he was gray. He had a pallor, to be sure, but there was a grayness to it of one in great strain. Although he was a man of strong passions
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