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

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BRUSSELS, Belgium—It was quite shocking to read that over the past 18 months at least 20 documents have been forged and published in various Soviet and pro-Soviet Communist newspapers and broadcast over their radios.

Before anyone would publish what claimed to be state papers of another nation he might expect that if they were forged documents they would be denounced promptly. And it is quite evident that this publication of such forgeries was thought to be a new way to attack the United States, so the use of Communist facilities in India and in Cairo as well as in East Berlin is easy to understand.

This new program of propaganda has five main themes: "Europe must not have nuclear weapons; Dulles is blocking a summit conference (this was before Mr. Khrushchev backed out); the United States is trying to take over the Middle East; the United States is plotting to dominate the world economically; the trigger-happy United States is eager to ignite war."

These themes are supposed to be Mr. Dulles' directives, and they were published at times as cables from U.S. officials. The stories even went so far as to explain how President Achmed Soekarno of Indonesia could be assassinated and how Nationalist China President Chiang Kai-shek is planning a program of subversion in the United States.

All of these forgeries first appeared outside the Soviet Union. Then they were broadcast by Moscow Radio, as well as by Peking and Cairo. Thus the content of the forged documents was spread widely in all the needed languages to vast numbers of people.

If you were an expert looking for proof of authenticity you could probably easily discover a number of reasons why these documents were not written by the people they are attributed to, but I think you would have to be an expert. So, it will not be astonishing if a great many people not only have believed but will continue to believe the nonsense in these forgeries.

It is well that we in America should know about them, since undoubtedly many travelers will be asked at some point about one or another, and we had better be prepared to give the lie to them all.

My attention was attracted the other day to a newspaper article about the election campaign in Maine. Interest is heightened by the fact that on September 8 a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate will be chosen, and a likely candidate is Governor Edmund S. Muskie, the first Democrat to be elected to that office. If he is nominated and if he wins, he will be the first Democratic Senator from Maine.

Mr. Muskie, who has been governor for two terms, is a quiet, tall, good-looking man. I wish he was better known throughout the country, for I think he has the qualities of greatness which might even lead him to be considered for the Presidency someday.

He speaks extremely well and is easy to understand, never trying to hide anything or cover up for anyone. I have a hunch he may break the Maine tradition and be elected to the Senate. If he is, he will be an asset there and a personality that will not long be ignored. He will bring dignity and courage to his office and his state.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1958, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 29, 1958

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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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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