Dear
Ed: Maybe you are right about Styles Bridges. I shall give him another opportunity to get on the team.1
However, I do strongly advise you not to be too sure of the reliability of your "informants" as to every Washington subject. The Bohlen appointment was not a "deal." Moreover, there was far less to it than appeared in print, rather than more. It is perfectly true that in the record were two or three completely baseless, wholly unsubstantiated rumors that he had been associated some fifteen or twenty years ago with some unsavory characters. I met Bohlen during the war, when he was a staff officer in the State Department and the Russian translator at some of the conferences. I've been a guest in his house and met his lovely wife. They have three daughters, I think!2
You seem to fear that I am just a poor little soul here who is being confused and misled by a lot of vicious advisers who are trying to draw unacceptable people into government.3 I see these recommendations myself and I have them analyzed by everybody from the FBI to the finest lawyers available. At this moment I do not know another man in America that has the potentialities for protecting American interests in Moscow as well as Bohlen has, backdoor gossips and rumor hounds to the contrary.
As for your support of the Bricker Amendment, I think it is another thing that you should study a bit more before you go so far out on a limb. Bricker may have some brilliant lawyers to support his contentions on April sixth, but neither Bricker, Frank Holman, or you, has had any experience in conducting difficult negotiations looking toward the necessary and essential Executive agreements which bear about the same relationship to treaties, so far as numbers are concerned, as fleas do to the dog on which they live. Some of these are absolutely essential to our security.4
By all this I do not mean that I do not appreciate learning from you everything that is brought to you, when the subject affects the running of this government. On the contrary, I value what you pass along. But it is somewhat disconcerting to see you take the side of the opposition against me, when you have no opportunity to investigate the actual workings of this government. It is my impression that even in the law, a bit of practice is often more valuable than a purely academic understanding.5
Love to Lucy and Janis, As ever
P.S. By the way, what do you think of the standing of such lawyers as John W. Davis, General Mitchell, and Judge Clark of the Circuit Court.6 These happen to be on exactly the opposite side from some of the men who are fighting in support of the Resolution.
