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

[Original version of the column. Text in red are tagged with <sic> (needs correction); text in purple are tagged with <orig> (needs regularization); and text in blue are tagged names of persons or organizations. View emended version]

      

PARIS, Tuesday .—Sunday was given over largely to the Korean War Veterans here. I went down early to the Palais Chaillot and watched the ceremony of the raising of the flag.

My great-grandson and his parents went with me and the little two year-old had a most wonderful time standing on a table, leaning out of the window. I never saw a little boy of two who enjoyed everything as much as Nicholas did. He never cried, and when the band stopped playing and the soldiers marched into the building we started downstairs to look for our seats. He ran around and played tag with his parents, spoke to everyone and shook hands with them when I introduced him. Then he sat quietly until the end of five speeches, which I think is quite a record at that age.

I was glad that his parents brought him because in the future they can tell him that he was a part of the ceremony that honored the first group of Korean War veterans to tour the country as symbols of the collective effort against aggression being made through the United Nations. It was really a rather historic day and I hope the men who are a part of this group are aware of the real significance and the hope it bears for the future of mankind.

The President of the Assembly greeted them first, and then Mr. Robert Schuman for France and then Mr. Lloyd for the United Kingdom. I took Ambassador Austin's place as he was not well enough to speak. The answer on the part of the soldiers was delivered by a young Canadian, in French, who could use the language and did so out of courtesy to the French who are our hosts here.

At luncheon afterwards I sat by a young American aviator. He is a fighter pilot who has a son four years old. He is one of the really fine products of a good American home and I loved to hear him talk about what a good wife he has and how he wanted to go out and buy her something to wear from Paris. Because of the trip around the United States and here he has had only a day and a half with his wife and a short visit with his mother since leaving Korea. But he is hoping for leave when he goes back to the States.

One had the feeling in talking to him that he and boys like him were the backbone of the America and that his home would be a typical, good, young American family home.

The boy on my other side was younger, unmarried and had stayed up the previous night seeing Paris. It was all he could do to keep his eyes open. He was a nice-looking boy and I hope he managed to see more of Paris than he did between midnight Saturday and 8 o'clock Sunday morning.

The thing that interests me about these boys is that they traveled with other boys from many countries and there seemed to be a real understanding and comradeship among them all. Prejudice, because of color or race or religion, seemed nonexistent, which is a fine thing.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1951, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Paris (France) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, December 5, 1951

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