1 The telephone call: Dodd,
2 Dodd also owned: “Farming Implements” and Survey, Box 59, W. E. Dodd Papers.
3 “The fruit is so beautiful”: William E. Dodd to Martha Dodd, Oct. 15, 1926, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.
4 “sudden surprise”: Dodd to Westmoreland Davis, June 22, 1933, Box 40, W. E. Dodd Papers.
5 he pleaded for heat: Dodd to Lester S. Ries, Oct. 31, 1932, Box 39, W. E. Dodd Papers.
6 “embarrassing”: Dodd to Charles E. Merriam, Aug. 27, 1932, Box 39, W. E. Dodd Papers.
7 “hard men”: Bailey, 6.
8 “Monk Dodd”: Dallek, 6.
9 Other students indulged: Ibid., 9.
10 “How helpless”: “Brief Note,” 6, Box 58, W. E. Dodd Papers.
11 “There was too much”: Ibid., 7.
12 at Randolph-Macon: Bailey, 35–36; Dallek, 31–32.
13 In October 1912: Dallek, 70; Dodd to Mrs. Dodd, March 26, 1930, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.
In this letter to his wife, composed one fine night while on his farm, Dodd wrote, “I am sitting by the dining room table in work-a-day clothes, the old-red sweater and the easy-slippers—a great oak log on the fire and a bed of hot coals three inches deep, all surrounded by white ashes. The old andirons (‘firedogs’ of my boyhood parlance) lean their solid black heads back in contented contemplation of their efficient service—the old red-brick fireplace as dignified as George Washington and the eighteenth century, when men had time to be dignified.”
14 Dodd also discovered: Bailey, 97–99; Dallek, 88–89.
15 More and more he considered: Dodd to William Dodd, Jr., Dec. 9, 1932, Box 39, W. E. Dodd Papers.
16 “These are posts”: Ibid.
17 “As to high diplomacy”: Dodd to Mrs. Dodd, March 25, 1933, Box 40, W. E. Dodd Papers.
18 Hull was tall and silver haired: Messersmith, “Cordell Hull and my personal relationships with him,” 7, unpublished memoir, Messersmith Papers.
Messersmith writes, “When I heard this strong language from this saintly looking man and who was in so many ways a saint, I almost fell through the floor from surprise.” See also Graebner, 193; Weil, 76–77, 87; and, of course, Hull’s own
One of Hull’s memorable aphorisms, directed at Hitler and his allies as war loomed, was this: “When you’re in a pissin’ contest with a skunk, make sure you got plenty of piss.” Weil, 77.
19 “After considerable study”: Dodd, pocket diary, March 2, 1933, Box 58, W. E. Dodd Papers.
1 No one wanted the job: Noakes and Pridham, 180; Rurup, 84–86; Wheaton, 428; Ladd, 123; Evans,
2 “It is not only because”: Roosevelt,
3 Cox said no.: Ibid., 338.
4 Roosevelt set the matter aside: Dallek, 187–89; Flynn, 148.
5 “You know, Jimmy”: Warburg, 124.
6 “ROOSEVELT TRIMS PROGRAM”:
7 Thus, he now found himself: Dallek, 187.
8 On Wednesday, June 7: Ibid., 189.
9 Polls showed: Herzstein, 77.
10 Secretary Roper believed: Roper, 335.
11 “I want to know”: Dodd,
12 Roosevelt gave him two hours: Ibid., 3.
13 His wife, Mattie, understood: Mrs. Dodd to William Dodd Jr., April 19, 1933, Box 1, Martha Dodd Papers.
14 “There is no place”: Dodd to Mrs. Dodd, March 25, 1933, Box 40, W. E. Dodd Papers.
15 Even had he been present: Messersmith, “Cordell Hull and My Personal Relationships,” 17, unpublished memoir, Messersmith Papers.
Messersmith wrote, “As Secretary of State he should have had really the deciding voice in determining who occupied the principal as well as the secondary posts of chief of mission.” Instead, Messersmith wrote, Hull abdicated and gave Roosevelt a free pass. “Some of us always felt that some of the more unfortunate appointments which were made during the time that Mr. Hull was Secretary could have been avoided if Mr. Hull had directly intervened in the matter.”
16 “get out of bounds”: Hull,
17 “Telephone Book Dodd”: Flynn, 148. See also Martha Dodd to Flynn, Oct. 17, 1947;
18 “My dear child”: Dodd to Martha, Dec. 16, 1928, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.
1 “William is a fine teacher”: Dodd to Mrs. Dodd, April 20, 1933, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.
2 “It would never do”: Dodd to Mrs. Dodd and Martha Dodd, April 13, 1933, Box 2, Martha Dodd Papers.
3 Her very first word: “Baby Book,” 1908–c. 1916, Box 1, Martha Dodd Papers.
4 In April 1930:
5 “I want nothing from life”: W. L. River to Martha Dodd, c. 1927, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.
6 “kisses soft”: James Burnham to Martha Dodd, n.d., Box 4, Martha Dodd Papers.
7 “His face is smooth-shaven.”:
8 “It was pain and sweetness”: Martha to Bassett, Feb. 19, 1976, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.
9 “What fun it was”: Bassett to Martha, Sept. 19, 1931, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.
I love these letters in large part because they are so full of Jimmy Stewartesque prose. In this letter Bassett deploys the greeting “Honeybuncha mia.” His first line reads, “I had the swellest love letter from you this morning.” And I, personally, had the swellest time reading all these letters. To quote Bassett again, “Yes, you bet, I have.”
10 “Never before or since”: Martha to Bassett, Nov. 1 (“more or less,” she writes), 1971, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.
11 “Either you love me”: Bassett to Martha, Feb. 21, 1932, Box 8, Martha Dodd Papers.
By this point, things are getting a little tense. Bassett begins this letter with a more sober “Martha dearest.” The “honeybuncha-mia” days are gone.
Three days later (Bassett to Martha, Feb. 24, 1932) he tried again: “Surely you cannot feel bound to go on and marry some one you do not love, merely because of a mistaken promise, when we both know how deeply, irrevocably, we are bound to each other.”
He began this letter with the greeting: “Dearest of women.” For a return address, he wrote: “The Bank.”
Honestly, we men can be so tone deaf.
