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were frightfully busy - not in the room, but outside the room on some telephone connection. They were trying to give the press all that it was legitmately possible to give them, but not hand them out just guesswork stuff that we were concluding from what little was known. I don't to this day know just what the press carried the next morning, how accurate and complete their information was. The President said, “The press will carry tomorrow morning practically everything we know now.” They didn't know exactly what was sunk, of course, but we didn't exactly either. Of course, as the days went on it became obvious that the situation was worse than had been reported that evening.

The next day I went to Congress to hear the President. We all went. I don't recall anything except the terrible tenseness, and the absolute lack of the usual loose-mouthed jollity that goes on whenever Congress meets in full session. There's usually a lot of bantering between the Congressmen and the Senators as to who sits where. If a Democratic Congressman moved over to the Republican side because there's more room there, he's subject to a little banter about it. But you noticed a total absence of any of that banter.

We assembled in the Speaker's room, as we always did, and then marched in and took the places reserved for us in the chamber. A committee is always appointed to greet the President. The committee who came in was as solemn as an owl.