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

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NEW YORK—It was interesting news that the Soviets have presented a program for disarmament which includes a United Nations police force and U.N. inspection. On the surface, it would seem that they have come a long way toward meeting our original desires.

Of course, to present this program and then to attack President Eisenhower in the way Mr. Khrushchev did makes very little sense, unless he is trying to prove to his people at home that in presenting such a program he is doing it in the interests of the U.S.S.R. and not from any consideration for the West.

I cannot help but wish that we might have been the ones to present a program for consideration by the U.N. and the world. Again we will be in the position of criticizing, and one can only hope that our criticism will be constructive.

I see that Secretary of Defense Thomas L. Gates, Jr., at the Senate hearing, said that President Eisenhower had taken responsibility for the U-2 incident on the advice of his aides. Strange advice this. I used to hear it said that the President was never to take the blame for anything.

That was one of the unwritten rules of all those who served in the government under the President. They knew from the very beginning that whatever advice they gave, if anything went wrong they were to blame—never the President. And even if he acted without their advice, whoever had anything to do with the incident—whatever it might be—accepted the blame; the President was never allowed to take it.

A change seems to have come about. Whether it is a good one or a bad one, I do not know, but I think on the whole the old way may have been the wiser.

The Tammany Hall organization in its desperate effort to defeat the Reform Democratic candidates, William F. Ryan in the 20th Congressional District, and Manfred Ohrenstein in the 25th State Senate District in Manhattan, is suspected of being up to its old tricks by preventing voters from exercising their franchise. They are experienced hands at delaying the opening of the polls, causing unintentional "breakdowns" of voting machines with the intention of causing extensivedelays and discouraging people from voting. The Reform candidates have urged all voters not to play into Tammany hands by leaving the polls without voting. Be patient, insist on your right to vote and cast your ballot.

E.R.


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 6, 1960

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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