Mission to Moscow [antikvár]

foreword It was August 25,1936.1 remember the date because it was my mothers birthday. I was up in the Adirondacks. I received a long-distance telephone call from my old friend. Secretary "Steve" Early at the White House, saying that the President wanted to see me. I went to Washington immediately. The President received me in the executive offices of the White House. Over a lunch which was served to us on his office desk he told me that he wanted to talk to me about a possible diplomatic appointment abroad. The background of this situation is found in the old days of President Wilsons administration when we had been young men together, devoted to the progressive cause in the Democratic Party, both before and during the Wilson Administration. A warm friendship had developed in those old days. We golfed together as regularly as our work would permit, had much in common in our political outlook, and saw a great deal of each other. Even in those days he was a marked man. Early in the Wilson Administration we had an organization called the "Common Counsel Club," which brought us all together twice a month. It was similar in character to the "Little Cabinet" of later days. All of us saw in this tall, handsome young Assistant Secretary of the Navy, the future great progressive liberal whom we were all "for" in connection with some future election to the presidency. In all of his political campaigns thereafter, along with these other men, I was actively engaged xt