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

[This column has emendations. View original version]

      

HYDE PARK, Friday—There is a paragraph in an editorial in one of our metropolitan papers which should be analyzed with care. The editorial itself follows the usual line of this paper's editorial policy and blames General Marshall and Secretary Acheson for the whole situation in Korea, and the Far East and praises the Legion for its statement on Korea.

One paragraph is particularly interesting. It states:

“One of our serious shortages in Korea has been manpower. Yet the U.S. accepted 4,000 troops from Siam and refused an offer of 33,000 veterans from Nationalist China.”

I wonder if it occurred to the writer of this editorial that taking troops from Formosa might be a rather dangerous proceeding. It would almost certainly invite an attack from Communist China. The supposition, I suppose, was that if we kept the Chinese sufficiently busy in Korea, this attack might be made impossible.

There is nothing, however, which can assure us of this and I don't think that our men would enjoy defending Formosa alone, as well as fighting with their U. N. colleagues in Korea.

And it seems to me that the American Legion's declaration on Korea does not help matters much. Of course, we want to see a unified Korea. Of course, we want peace in Korea.

But when we say we will fight this war to a glorious and victorious end, do we mean that we are willing to enlarge the theatre of war? That would mean more men and more material involved. Are we prepared for that? Fine phrases don't give us a victory!

Some rather good things are happening these days. One must congratulate the people of Mr. Rankin's state for having called him back to live among them. He will surely find much that is valuable and interesting to do in his own state.

Wednesday night I saw a friend who had listened to Governor Stevenson's American Legion speech. She heard General Eisenhower's, also, and she had long ago made up her mind that "it was time for a change of party."

But after both speeches had been heard, her faith was a little shaken. This, I think, shows the value of really saying things when you speak.

Many people will remember Governor Stevenson's statements:

"Patriotism with us is not the hatred of Russia; it is the love of this republic and the ideal of liberty of man and mind," and "The purpose of our power must never be lost in the fact of our power."

There is food for thought in both of these statements. And people are thinking in this campaign! The lady I visited remarked: "I have begun to waiver and I think I will vote for Adlai."

E.R.

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


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 30, 1952

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 May 2, 2022.

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