About David K. E. Bruce: David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce was an American diplomat and politician. He was the only American to serve as Ambassador to France, the Republic of Germany, and the United Kingdom.
There's always a great deal of business to be transacted in one's office. There are always visitors it seems to me, an unending stream of them, who come with letters of recommendation, or come actually on substantive business.
My knowledge of the state of President Roosevelt's health was derived entirely from conversations, from newspaper articles and from photographs.
The real duties of an ambassador are to enter into or follow negotiations between his own government and that of the country to which he is accredited.
I think, like many others, I realized that only the massive introduction of American support in one form or another, could possibly bring about a rehabilitation of the economies of those countries within a reasonable time.
I thought that in general we in the United States were too optimistic in believing that the Soviets might alter what had been for a long time, as a matter of fact for centuries, fundamental Russian policies in respect to the rest of the world.
Well, as a general remark, I would say that I was discouraged by the physical and economic conditions in continental Europe after the war.
Personally I believe that the courses we followed for some years after World War II were enlightened, surprisingly imaginative and extremely effective.
