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  I  can find no mention of his origins in the book itself.  For a man who is capable of such effort - research, etc., it seems that Hill & Wang could have told us a bit about him.  The more I go through his book, the more I see what a real lousy bastard Harry Truman was, and Dean Acheson doesn't come off too well either.   The "media" used to tell us about HST's friendship with Herbie Hoover, as though it was really a fine thing.   Both were bastards, we know, who did everything to undermine democracy and were aided in that by the go-between man of at least two wars - Barney Baruch.
   In one of his letters to me recently, Dave Tullman asked me if I could find out anything about a man named Targ, who appears to have had some connection with the book world.   This isn't the first mission he's given me, so I go about this rather calmly, but if you can recall any such person, let me know, and for Christ's sake, don't rush about it.  A few of the Jews (he appears to be only interested in M-O-T) (Members of Tribe) I did get in touch with by 'phone were certainly lacking in manners.  When I told one woman this, she said she didn't need to be civil to me, as she didn't know me!  I had inquired for Tullman about a man to whom she was related.   A steward in the 1st class section of the liner United States told me that he always layed-off when the liner went on cruises to the Carribean [sic] in winter, as those cruises had too many insulting Jews aboard, and no matter what they tipped, he'd rather do without the money.   When I got in touch with Rube Menken, he suggested we meet "sometime" and we'd have a coffee together.  Imagine, a whole coffee.  I told Dave later about his buddy, but Dave made allowances, saying maybe Rube was busy.  The aforementioned steward, an Englishman long resident in America, showed me Salvador Dali's spacious suite (paid for by the good old Yankee taxpayer - so-called "good Will" trip via our state dept), and when the boat docked, Dali sat on a bench alongside me and engaged in conversation with some other fascist P, while we awaited for our luggage to come off the vessel.  The steward told me that the ship was the playground for various celebrities, many of whom traveled at our expense, one being Bob Hope, who usually carried along three other people, including a female who shared a room with Hope.   And this tiresome ass is worshipped by the Methodists as one of their big men; no doubt he contributes heavily.  Yes, Nixon keeps trying desperately to gain some big victory he can use to gain re-election.  When the So. Vietnamese and the sneaky American support got chased out of Laos, the "seccatary" [sic] of defense made a remark that was overpowering for understatement - that the enemy had too much strength!  Regards, F. Mead

handwritten note in left margin P. S. Don't say anything to Sheridan about my plan to go to England. I'll tell him later. Got a card from Ruth S. last Christmas. Nothing since.