“What did the President say?” the Secretary of State asked from behind furrowed eyebrows.
“He agreed we should and delegated the assignment to me. Then I carried it a step further and asked him if we should proceed as we had earlier discussed it. He said I should handle it any way I think.”
Haggerty added, “Even if the President was under the weather you would expect him to have easy recall of potential international incidents that could provide embarrassment to the United States especially if he discussed such an incident with his Vice President—”
“Assuming such an incident actually existed,” Grant said, “but since I made it up the old President Rood would have confronted me on it and given me a severe tongue lashing for trying to deceive him.”
“Mr. Vice President,” Attorney General H
