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offers. They were sort of “on the spur of the moment” things.

Truman offered me a job, and Ike, of course, offered me a job. When Ike offered me a job, I was more intimidated, if that's the way to put it, than I was by Johnson's, because Johnson had been nagging at me about coming down and so forth for a long time.

I went to see Bob [Robert] Lovett, who had served as Secretary of Defense and as Under-- Secretary of State under a couple of Presidents, and was very close to the people in the cabinet over his entire career. I said: “You know, I've been offered something by Eisenhower. What's the protocol? What do you do?”

He said: “Well, if you're at war and the President says ‘I want you to do something,’ you do it. If it's peace time, unless it's some very special thing, you can decline.” And I did. And it was a smart thing to--Ike was wrong in picking me. I don't know why in the world he picked me for the job, and I, maybe I've mentioned it before.

You did tell that story.

Yes. Because I went over to see [John Foster] Dulles, and he just said: “I don't want you to take the job.” And Dulles was right. But Johnson offered me, not a blank check, but I think if I'd said: “I don't want this, but I'd like that,” he would have moved somebody and said: “Get in there and do it.”

Did you ever regret--