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[When Olbricht and Stauffenberg arrive at Fromm's office, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel is inside; the two are engaged in a shouting match, arguing furiously.]
Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel: I have better things to do with my time than to come down here and clean up your mess! If you were enough of a man to run this department, I wouldn't have to do it myself! You're an old woman, Fromm! I'd send you to the front if I didn't think you'd surrender, just to be Montgomery's whore! [storms out as Fromm's secretary brings Stauffenberg and Olbricht in.]
General Friedrich Fromm: What is it you want?
General Friedrich Olbricht: I wanted to introduce our new man, Colonel Stauffenberg.
Fromm: Ah! From Africa. Well, I'd offer you my hand, but I might not get it back.
Col. Claus von Stauffenberg: I'd say the General's lost more important things this morning.
Fromm: [breaks out in laughter] It's about time they put somebody with balls into this office, [laughs] Please sit down, Colonel. And Olbricht, if you must. [Stauffenberg and Olbricht sit at Fromm's desk] They tell me you're critical of the war, Colonel, not that you don't seem to have good reason.
Stauffenberg: I am critical of indecision, General.
Fromm: In the field?
Stauffenberg: In Berlin.
Fromm: So, that's why you're here, I take it. To make decisions...
Stauffenberg: I've already made my decision. I'm here to help others make theirs.
Fromm: They say when there's no clear option, the best thing is to do nothing.
Stauffenberg: We're at war. We must act. Sometimes rashly.
Fromm: And what rash action did you have in mind, Colonel?
Stauffenberg: That would be a decision for the supreme military commander, sir.
Fromm: A supreme commander. Second only to the Chancellor. If I were that man, this war would be going quite differently.
Olbricht: Well, we were thinking the same thing. [pause]
Fromm: I don't need to remind you that we have all sworn an oath to the Fuhrer. [Carefully disables a listening device in his telephone] Having said that, I'm going to forget this conversation ever took place, in the strict understanding that such talk never occurs again under this roof. Is that clear?!
Stauffenberg: Yes, sir.
Olbricht: Yes, sir.
Fromm: Now you can tell your friends, Colonel, that I always come down on the right side, and as long as the Fuehrer is alive, you know what side that is.


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