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

[This column has emendations. View original version]

      

NEW YORK, Thursday—A very significant item in the newspaper today revealed the appointment of Brig. Gen. Ken Reed Dyke of New York City, who was formerly a member of General MacArthur's staff, to serve as a liaison officer with General MacArthur in Korea. His task will be to provide United Nations information to the armed forces serving under the unified command in Korea. This is all the more important now that we hope a unified Korea and a peaceful Korea is in sight.

Once peace is established, the U.N. forces will play a double role, for it will be the interpreter of democracy. Through the U.N. will come vital assistance already being generously subscribed by many nations to the devastated areas of Korea. Relief will, of necessity, have to be administered at first by the armed forces in Korea. These young men have the obligation to interpret the policies and purposes of the U.N. to the Korean people. It will be a very practical demonstration they will carry on, and one that will come close to the hearts of people living in the devastated areas. The way they carry out their work may be the deciding factor in the success of the whole United Nations policy.

The Koreans may come to understand the meaning and purposes of the free nations of the world, or they may remain an embittered and unhappy people. The United Nations forces will have much to do with which way they turn.

General Dyke has served on the board of the American Association for the United Nations and has shown his deep interest in the type of educational work that he is about to carry on. As vice president in charge of public relations for the advertising agency of Young and Rubicam, he will understand how to reach the men with the type of information that will achieve the objectives of making them feel truly responsible and part of a very great adventure which may be the foundation of a peaceful world.

Now that there is available an official text of the speech made by Premier Chou En-lai of Communist China, one cannot help being impressed by the fact that he declared "that the most important task confronting the Communists (Peoples' Democratic Dictatorship) was that of consolidating the control over 'the newly liberated areas' with a population of 300,000,000."

He claims that there are only some 200,000 guerrillas still resisting the Communists on the Chinese mainland, which seems a small number to be so worried about.

The Nationalist government, on the other hand, claims that they are still in touch with 1,600,000 men, carrying on resistance.

One gathers from Premier Chou's address that difficulties are facing the Communists on the mainland. They complain of landlords who prefer to give away their land and kill their livestock, destroy their homes, crops, trees and farm implements rather than cooperate with the new government. All this must mean headaches for the dictator. And while it may not be too serious, still it would indicate that, for a time at least, the Chinese Communists will be fairly well occupied at home.

Perhaps the Red regime will not be giving too much attention to Korea, nor even have too much time to think about its Soviet relations. China itself is a huge country which can furnish its rulers with all the problems they can possibly handle in the next few months.

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

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


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 6, 1950

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