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

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NEW YORK—The offer made by the Communist Chinese to allow the families of the 11 imprisoned U.S. Air Force fliers to visit them is in some ways very hard to understand. It is perplexing, that is, unless we are to believe what U Nu, Prime Minister of Burma, told correspondent Joseph Alsop the other day—that this is a way of trying to get some of our people into China in the hope of convincing us that they are not looking for war.

The Chinese Communists, according to the Burma Premier, say they are afraid that we intend to extend war to other areas of the world, largely through bases which the Chinese claim are built to ring them around and keep them constantly in fear of being attacked in an aggressive war.

This reasoning always seems to me so unrealistic because there is no record of the United States having at any time undertaken aggressive war. I do not think that it would be possible for any administration to lead the American people into an aggressive war.

And though the Soviet Union may say it was in the interest of self-defense, one must recognize that the Reds have actually taken over much territory and have not defended the integrity of small nations when they felt those nations, under Soviet domination, could make their own country more secure.

I was sorry to see in the paper on Monday the announcement of the death of Mrs. Dwight Morrow. She had a long and very well-filled life, and though her children and her friends will grieve they must at least be grateful that she did not have to remain an invalid for long. As far back as I can remember she has been a great influence in education and in many valuable civic works.

Last Sunday was truly a day of rest for me and I enjoyed it very much, particularly the chance for a chat with my friend, Miss Doris Fleeson, who was in New York for a few days.

On last Friday night I saw and enjoyed very much a play called "The Flowering Peach" by Clifford Odets. It was a really charming play, and one that I think can be seen a second time and enjoyed as much as the first time.

Menasha Skulnik, who plays the lead, is of course, responsible for the delightful blend of humor and pathos, but every performer is good and somehow they made the story of the ark completely contemporary and of present interest. There is a spiritual quality to the play that sent me away feeling that I had spent a pleasant and amusing evening and yet left me with much to think about.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1955, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INCL REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 26, 1955

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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MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

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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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