"The Four of Us"

The procession rolled into the White House driveway: khaki-colored Army sedans, black limousines from the State Department and from the British and Russian embassies, even several taxicabs. Out stepped the men from Dumbarton Oaks. The diplomats were dressed in seersuckers and tropical woolens; their military advisers wore plain uniforms, barren of braid. The White House had intimated that this was to be a casual affair: no sugar-scoop coats and striped pants. The British and Russian diplomats, ushered before the President, found him in a mood to discuss world peace in an equally casual way. Said he:

"I have not prepared any speech. This is merely a feeling on my part that I would like to shake hands with you. A conference of this kind always reminds me of an old saying of a gentleman called Alfred E. Smith, who used to be Governor of New York. ... He said that if you can get the parties into one room with a big table and make them take their coats off and put their feet up on the table, and give each one of thema good cigar, you can always make them agree. Well, there was something in the idea. . . .

"I think that often it comes down to personalities. When, back in 1941, at the time of the Atlantic Charter, just for example, I did not know Mr. Churchill at all well. ... I did not know Mr. Eden. But up there in the North Atlantic--three or four days together, with our two ships lying close together--we got awfully fond of each other. I got to know him. and he got to know me. In other words, we met, and you cannot hate a man that you know well

"Later on Mr. Molotov came here, and we had a grand time together. Then during the following year, at Teheran, the Marshal [Stalin] and I got to know each other. We got on beautifully. We cracked the ice, if there ever was any ice; and since then there has been no ice.

'A Peace That Will Last. "We have got to make not merely a peace, but a peace that will last, and a peace in which the larger nations will work absolutely in unison in preventing war by force. But the four of us* have to be friends, conferring all the time--on the basis of getting to know each other--putting their feet on the table. . . . Let's hang on to [our] friendships, and by spreading that spirit around the world, we may have a peaceful period for our grandchildren to grow up in."

Franklin Roosevelt ended with a friendly grin: "It is good to see you. Good luck." The diplomats, not one of whom had put his feet up on the White House table during the President's welcome, drove back to the high-walled secrecy of Dumbarton Oaks.

*Actually, only "three of us" were present. China will be admitted after Russia ends its discussions--a technicality arising from the fact that the U.S.S.R. is not at war with Japan.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.