At the White House Dinner on Sunday, 29th April, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. was most antagonistic and unfriendly. First he pulled his chair onto my chiffon skirt. He is a clout and a boor.
He asked if I held the same opinions as my husband then asked if he could ask me a question.
I said I did hold the same opinions generally and he asked how my husband could possibly accept the invitation to the White House after what he had said to the President. I remained good natured but said there was nothing personal in either the invitation [or] the acceptance - [Just the] President of [the] U.S. having dinner [with a] Nobel [Laureate].
He repeated this [talk] about "breaking bread" with [a] man who he had accused of being more immoral than Hitler, Caligula, etc. I repeated nothing personal.
I said finally that I supposed it was because he had been a professor at Harvard that he felt justified in asking such questions. I said long ago Linus [had] been offered [a position as a] Professor at [Harvard] but had refused it.
He finally said he shouldn't have asked such questions. I said [it was] quite all right.
He had gathered up the matches which said "President's House" on them and then had to give them back - one to me, one to Mrs. V.W. Brooks - when I asked where the matches had gone.
Asked about children [and] told about his children - he's married to [a] daughter of [Walter] Cannon. His kids [are] not scientific.
Wouldn't believe me when I said Robert Frost [was] not allowed to speak [in] Columbus, Ohio. He is from Columbus. He is always picketed, he says, by [the] American Legion.
Discussed H. Stuart Hughes running for Congress. [He said that] Hughes [is] influenced by Spengler, [and] wants to coexist with Communists.
I asked what his plan for [the] future was. [He] didn't answer.
Asked if I knew Communists. Says [it's] not the poor getting poorer - [it's the] rich [getting] richer. But true [among?] nations.
Soviet people can't get paper or news from West.
White House Dinner. Sunday, 29th April, 1962. My table #5 – Dining Room. Arthur Schlesinger, Mrs. Van Wyck Brooks, [Detlev] Bronk, Doris DuBridge, George Kistiakowsky, Edward Tatum, Mrs. Pusey, Bill Libby, A.H.P.
Bill Libby discussed [a] meeting on radiation at [the] Philosophical Society. Said Moe said he'd invited Linus but he couldn't come. Moe told an untruth. Libby had asked Moe (he said) why Linus wasn't there. Libby talked about being interested in Children of scientists. Wants to see Peter - July - talked of G.K.'s sons also. Gibsons. I asked if he knew Bill Giauque's. Talked about his twin daughters (adopted), now 17.
April
29, 1962
