An excerpt from
Portraits from a Life
by Heward Grafftey
Diefenbaker's famous feud with Kennedy is now well recorded. Things went from bad to worse when Kennedy dropped a note on the floor while conferring with Diefenbaker in his office. The note addressed to a presidential aide read: "How do you deal with this SOB?" Unfortunately, after the President departed, Diefenbaker picked up the note and read it. The stage was set for "everlasting enmity" between the Prime Minister and the President. Later on, Diefenbaker would say to me, while imitating Kennedy's New England accent, "I have nothing to learn from this young pup. He won't push me around." Diefenbaker's attitude, for me, was incomprehensible. That the relationship between Canada and the United States could so suffer because of such personal incompatibility seemed unbelievable.