The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

      

NEW YORK—The dust of eight days of driving fairly steadily over dusty roads in Israel was washed out of my hair in Rome last Monday morning, and, feeling refreshed, I went for a walk in the vicinity of our hotel.

I was looking into a shop window when suddenly I heard what might be described as an excited squeal, and a young voice said:

"Oh, it's Mrs. Roosevelt!"

Two young California girls shook me warmly by the hand and said, "This is something to write home about!"

Then I wandered on, and just as I was going into a shop I met Mr. and Mrs. David Heyman of New York. While I was talking to them, a gentleman from Pennsylvania and one from Chicago greeted me. Inside the shop all I wanted to do was to replace an eyeglasses case, which I had lost, and again I was greeted by Americans busily buying many things.

Finally I returned to the hotel. From my balcony I could see a large area of Rome and many beautiful domes of churches. When I had been through Rome on previous visits, the city had always given me a sense of returning to ancient history. But now that I was on my way home from a land where history takes one back so many centuries to the time before Christ and rubs elbows with the most modern theories of advanced Europeans, age, of itself, as applied to Rome or anywhere else, did not impress me quite so much.

I am still getting clippings about the publication of the Yalta papers. I am not concerned, of course, about an action that was entirely the responsibility of the present Administration, and I am in no position to judge as to the wisdom or non-wisdom or the reasons for this action at the present time.

Like any other American citizen, I am concerned with strengthening the ties with our allies, Great Britain and France especially. It always disturbs me when things occur that must give comfort to the Soviet Union because they irritate our friends.

There was only one thing that was sent to me while I was away that I felt might contribute some understanding at least. The fact that my husband tried to build more understanding and confidence in Stalin both at Teheran and later at Yalta, I am sure was known and understood by Mr. Churchill. I am also sure that my husband said nothing to Stalin that he had not previously said to Mr. Churchill.

The fact that he had a deep admiration and a warm friendship for Mr. Churchill did not mean that they saw everything from the same point of view or that they always agreed on every subject. But that my husband did not express the same point of view or discuss with Mr. Churchill the same ideas that he presented to Stalin I doubt very much.

So, as far as I am concerned, I do not think that there was ever any lack of friendship shown even though my husband's point of view as presented to Marshal Stalin might have been distasteful to Mr. Churchill.

(DISTRIBUTED BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 4, 1955

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

XML master last modified on June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
TMs, AERP, FDRL