261. Editorial Note
On February 25, 1963, Under Secretary Ball, feeling misunderstood over his involvement in the administration’s commitment to limit wool textile imports, spoke with Carl Kaysen on the telephone explaining his role:
"On this wool thing, I am a little annoyed and disturbed because the President now is sending me various messages through Feldman, through the Secretary, and so on, to the effect that after all this was my commitment as much as his; that I was present when it was made and so on. I was not present when it was made, and if there is anything I have done over the last two years it’s to fight it alone, a rear-guard action against the wool and the whole textile business. Now, this is one of Mike’s operations—you know, to say to the President: ‘Well, after all, George told you to do it, and so on.’ What happened was that after the commitment was made I simply said ‘I don’t know how in the hell we’ll do it, but we’ll do our best.’ This is the only thing one could say. But now I find myself in a position where I am getting blamed for getting him into misguided commitment, which couldn’t just be further from the truth. I don’t know quite how to handle that; I’ll have to give some thought to it.” (Memorandum of telephone conversation, February 25; Kennedy Library, Ball Papers, Balance of Payments, 1963)