March 2:
We go to K[ansas] C[ity.] See mamma[.]
March 3:
Spend a pleasant day.
Go to bed and get called a[t] 2:30 A.M. Tuesday.
It is a nice morning. But we run into clouds over Texas and Okla[homa].
March 4:
Come into sight of Monterey [sic] after the sun had been up an hour or two. Country looks like a map. About nine or nine thirty see Popocatepetl and try to see Orizaba-haze too thick[,] can't see it. Approach rim around Tenochtitlan Valley-up 11000 feet. No discomfort. Beautiful valley. Must have been lovely when a lake. Too bad the Spaniards drained it. Made a lot of dust.
Perfect day. Land at 10:00 on the dot. My pilot never misses a schedule.
Step down from plane. Mexican President comes down steps of observation tower at same time. We meet. I like him at once. He introduces his Cabinet, I introduce my secretaries and aides.
We walk to platform beautiful [sic] decorated with flowers-both flags worked out in flowers. The Mexican President welcomes me. I am made a citizen of the Federal district by its Governor-another Aleman[,] no kin of the President. He pins a beautiful gold medal on me. I make suitable reply and mispronounce Tenochtitlan to the delight of everybody.
We get into my big open Lincoln car and start for American Embassy.
Never saw such crowds-such enthusiasm. Arrive at Embassy[,] bid President goodbye. Have dinner at Palace where I make a speech in reply to the [Truman writes "Tuesday night" above this part of the entry] Mexican Presidents. Shake hands with some two or three thousand. The President & I go out upon a balcony with a rug over the railing and wave to a sea of people-thousands so they say. Have seen pictures of Franz Joseph, Marcus Aurelius & Napoleon doing it. But it[']s my first time.
Tuesday morning lay a wreath on soldiers monument with lots and lots of ceremony. Then the Foreign Minister and I drive to the Chepultepec where I place a wreath on the Monument to the Ninos [sic] Heros [sic]-cadets who stood up to Old Fuss & Feathers until all but one was killed. He wraped [sic] the Mexican Flag around himself and jumped 200 feet to his death. The monument is where he fell. Had all the cadets lined up and the Foreign Minister and the Commandant of the Cadets wept-so did news men and photographers. I almost did myself. It seems that tribute to these young heros [sic] really set off the visit. They had it coming.
Lunch at Embassy and reception. More hand shakes-3000 of 'em. Dinner at Embassy for President of Mexico.
March 6:
Fiesta! oh my what a show. Never saw anything like it and never expect to again[.] 60000 in the Stadium and twice as many outside.
Dinner with the President at his house. Three Ex-Presidents present. A grand time. Music and everything.
To bed at 1 A.M. What a time!
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