First Lady of the World'
WOLFE, ANN F.
On My Own. Harper. 241 SHORTLY after the death of her husband, the author of this spirited memoir was visited by two old friends who, in all seriousness, offered their services as "a...
...Everywhere, in her concern for human welfare and social justice, she lived up to the title accorded by her publisher, "First Lady of the World...
...Mrs...
...An invitation to visit Formosa was declined...
...Campaigning for Adlai Stevenson, she criss-crossed the U. S. on a high-voltage tour of the hustings —without neglecting her rough personal schedule of lectures and newspaper and magazine columns...
...Roosevelt must have fou,nd the interview with Nikita Khrushchev somewhat anti-climactic...
...For six years, in London, Paris, Geneva and New York, she tirelessly promoted the American position on crucial humanitarian questions...
...Roosevelt had busily commuted back and forth across the Atlantic...
...The most significant of the foreign sojourns, both from the author's standpoint and her country's, was her reportorial mission to the USSR, in 1957...
...What gave her cause to worry, however, was not the technological and scientific advances but the Pavlovian conditioning that aims to turn the masses "into completely disciplined and amenable people...
...It is, in fact, that very candor, born of pragmatism and idealism, that invests this unique document with intimate charm and lasting worth...
...I love you both dearly," broke in the elemental force that is Eleanor Roosevelt, "but you can't run my life...
...By the time her ship docked at Southampton, she had taken on additional responsibilities as member o-f the important Commission on Human Rights...
...In 1956, after demonstrating on a broad international front her versatility as diplomat and humanitarian, the author proved her mettle as a politician...
...With the fearless candor that has helped make her a controversial figure at home, she let fly at Democratic Senator John Kennedy for evading the McCarthy issue and at Republican Richard Nixon for being Richard Nixon...
...241 SHORTLY after the death of her husband, the author of this spirited memoir was visited by two old friends who, in all seriousness, offered their services as "a committee to consider how your life is to be planned...
...By year's end she had been named to the U. S. delegation of the United Nations General Assembly, the only woman delegate...
...She early received her baptism in the devious obstructionist tactics of the Soviets and bested the formidable Andrei Vishinsky in defending the rights of war refugees to decide whether or not to return to their home countries...
...And at 61—courageous and indestructible—she embarked on one of the most strenuous periods of her incredibly strenuous public career...
...After noting these Orwellian developments, Mrs...
...Now, in official or semi-official capacities, she visited Israel, three Arab countries, Japan, Yugoslavia, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Athens, Bali and Morocco, talking, as always, with ordinary citizens as well as heads of state...
...She got nowhere in countering the stock Communist arguments, from "it wasn't the Soviets who broke the Yalta agreements" down the line to denial of Soviet anti-Semitism...
...She was 72...
...Roosevelt concluded that "the Government was trying to integrate the Jews completely,") Khrushchev annou, nced, of course, that Communism, "the highest state," will win the world...
...Though she failed to take into account the pre-World War I reforms in education, industry and agriculture, she tried to view through Russian eyes the astounding progress of the last 40 years...
...How many, half her age, could have matched her performance...
...In 1952, she transferred her activities to the American Association for the United Nations...
...As a UN delegate, Mrs...
Vol. 41 • December 1958 • No. 46
