Kilgore was not, however, under the illusion that everyone, or even every Journal reader, would see it his way. A week after the publication of “A Difference of Opinion,” the Journal ran ten letters from readers in response to Williams’s design story and the Journal’s two editorials. The first, from V.C. Marshall of New York City, said, “I believe you rendered the economy a disservice when you stressed the glutted conditions you expected to become rampant throughout the used car markets. Likewise you were grievously wrong to publish advance information about what any one manufacturer was contemplating doing in the way of design for the 1955 car.” The letter was published without editorial comment, even though the story had directly predicted no such glut, and had, of course, published advance information about the plans of all manufacturers.

Letters published in the Journal ran 7-2 in the paper’s favor (with one using the dispute to make a separate point). I.F. Kain of Coshocton, Ohio called the editorials “most welcome in this decade of conformity and witches.” B.F. Davis of San Francisco was more prosaic and direct:

I subscribe to your paper because of its fine reporting and for your journalistic scoops.

Permitting anyone to dictate to you or censor your columns would be disastrous.

Stand your ground! Don’t let General Motors or anybody else run your business.

On the same day these letters were published, Kilgore sought to defuse the escalating crisis.

The vehicle that he chose was another letter from a Journal reader. Roy Brenholts of Columbus, Ohio had written in support of the Journal’s “Difference of Opinion” editorial, and had asked that the Journal forward his letter to General Motors. Just three paragraphs in all, his letter included the following:

I have two Cadillacs and a Ford. I was considering trading the Ford for a Chevy. Now I will trade for another Ford. I had considered trading one Cadillac for a new one. Until General Motors tells you they will stop their Hitlerite attitude I will not consider another Cadillac.

Kilgore wrote back to Brenholts himself, saying that, because “you have…made some statements I am sure the company would want to know about”, he was making an exception to policy and would pass along Brenholts’s letter to GM. But he also told Brenholts that, “I personally hope that the action of the company with respect to its advertising does not represent the considered judgment of General Motors top management.” That said, he also stated that GM’s public relations department had “only yesterday” declined to check a “very important story” the Journal news department was pursuing. But Kilgore concluded his letter by advising Brenholts against answering boycott with boycott. “Please do not misunderstand me,” he wrote. “I appreciate your support of our editorial position. I just don’t think that differences of opinion in one particular field should be allowed to spread into others.”

Then, clearly by design, and on the very same day, Kilgore turned around and sent both Brenholts’s letter and his own reply to Harlow Curtice. He ended his letter to Curtice with something of a plea for reasonableness to prevail:

As a newspaperman I don’t suppose I should complain about articles published in other newspapers and magazines, but I do feel the publicity about our differences of opinion have tended to prolong those differences and I am particularly aware of the possibility that various members of our own organization may be unduly influenced by published material. The same thing might possibly be true on your side.

If you have any good ideas on how we might sort of break this thing up I would appreciate having them.

For his part, Curtice recognized that he had made a mistake. Kilgore’s top lieutenant recalled it as “an enormous public relations error.” Some observers noted that the pending antitrust investigation made the timing of the dispute especially inopportune for the auto company. The ban on the Journal receiving GM press releases had been lifted as soon as the controversy became public. On July 1, the day after the second batch of letters appeared in the Journal, the newspaper was provided with GM’s weekly production figures. The weekly story on industry output appeared in the paper on Friday, July 2. But there was no crowing—the GM figures were mentioned only in the ninth paragraph of the article, and with no reference to the controversy, or to the source of the figures. (By the next week, Ward’s Automotive had also lifted its collateral ban on the Journal.)

The day the weekly production story appeared Curtice replied to Kilgore. He defended the GM position on the Chevvy blueprints, even as he disclaimed any interest in refusing to cooperate with the Journal news department. His letter did not mention GM advertising. But it did invite Kilgore to visit him in Detroit on Wednesday, July 7, following the Independence Day holiday weekend.

Kilgore did not see Curtice’s response until Tuesday, July 6. He instantly sent a wire to Curtice, saying that, “[i]f your schedule permits”, he would arrive at 11 a.m. the next morning. At 6:35 that night, Curtice replied by telegram that “WILL BE GLAD TO SEE YOU TOMORROW MORNING AT ELEVEN AM.”

A colleague recalled the following account of the meeting from Kilgore:

I just told Curtice that as much as we would like to be friends with General Motors and as much as I hated losing all that advertising, I couldn’t let anyone dictate what the Journal could or couldn’t print.