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, Sunday—In Committee Three not long ago the Soviet delegate undertook to demonstrate that there was no Iron Curtain which cut off the Soviets from the rest of the world. He listed the various groups of people which had been permitted in a month to visit Russia and he implied, without actually saying so, that the U. S. was more closed to citizens of his country than Russia was to the citizens of the U. S. Unfortunately he began a list of visitors by mentioning a member of a well-known Communist-controlled union in the United States, so he stopped rather quickly from giving further names.

It is prominently featured in the papers over here that Mr. Patterson, the American Negro who is strewing the pamphlets "We Charge Genocide" among U. N. delegations, is taking a trip in Hungary. In a widely publicized interview there, Mr. Patterson has compared conditions in that country with those in the United States, praising Hungary as being far ahead. At a time when no visas are being given for Americans to visit Hungary, it seems a rather odd proceeding on his part and one wonders if he has decided to transfer his citizenship to the Soviets.

Perhaps the best example that the Iron Curtain is still working is the life and death of Maxim Litvinoff. He was once a world figure prominent in the debates in the League of Nations. I remember him best as the Soviet Ambassador in Washington who, in November, 1933, negotiated with my husband for the recognition of Russia. He was married to an English woman and perhaps had more of a pro-Western orientation than many other Russian revolutionaries who have played a prominent role in the last few years. At least he understood the West a little better, and that may be why he was so little heard of during the last few years when the misunderstandings have been steadily growing.

I noticed in the paper a few days ago that Senator Robert A. Taft, who has not yet been nominated for President by the Republican party, is now being urged to name a cabinet, and that John Foster Dulles, who has always been considered one of Thomas E. Dewey's strongest supporters, is being urged on Mr. Taft as his Secretary of State. I am sure that no one would question Mr. Dulles' fitness for this post, but one may wonder just why Senator H. Alexander Smith of N. J. thinks that Mr. Taft and Mr. Dulles will work well together. They have not seemed to hold very similar views on international topics. Some of the other suggestions made by Senator Smith, who has just returned from the Far East, savor of rather hasty recommendations made after the type of trip which does not permit of being too sure of one's facts.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1952, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.; REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
Organizations
  • United Nations. General Assembly. Third Committee on Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs [ index ]
         [ VIAF ]
Geographic
  • Paris (France) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 7, 1952

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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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
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Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

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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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