Details
ROOSEVELT, ELEANOR. Typed letter signed ("Eleanor Roosevelt"), to the journalist Walter Winchell, New York, 22 October 1945, 2 pages 4to, on 2 sheets of her personal imprinted stationery, concerning the Foreign Ministers' Meeting of Oct. 8 1945, an effort to reach an understanding between the Allies on the issue of the atomic bomb.
"I listened to your broadcast last night and I was distressed that you felt you had to say I had written you. I had not meant to put you in that position. I just wanted you to know that I had not attacked Secretary Byrnes [Secretary of State from 1945-47].
"Perhaps I should explain what really happened. Someone asked me whether I was disappointed by the failure of the Ministers' meeting [the Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in London on October 8] and I explained that I was not disappointed because I felt a meeting of that kind required more preparation than had been possible for this one. Mr. Molotov [Soviet foreign minister from [ ] ] is an old hand and had attended other meetings but Secretary Byrnes and Mr. [Ernest] Bevin [British labor leader, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1945-51] were new, and in order to discuss controversial international questions, one had to build up among the men themselves personal confidence and liking, That had not been possible in such a short time.
"Mr. Bevin had an age old quarrel with everything that Mr. Molotov stood for and had fought the British communists in his own unions. Therefore Secretary Byrnes started out with the necessity of being an arbiter between the two...[He] had very little time to establish the kind of relationship with the other two men which would make it possible to do the job effectively..."
[with]
Typed letter signed ("Eleanor Roosevelt") to a Mr. Heuschkel, 18 September 1950, one page, 4to, on her imprinted stationery, offering advice and sympathy: "I wish we could talk together instead of writing. I suppose courage comes with belief in God, but I think it also comes through a study of history. If you will think back to the early people who settled this country who had no security whatsoever and yet they settled a great Continent. You and I have different kinds of problems, but I think we are quite as capable of meeting the problems of today...if we just take them one by one and do our best...". E. Roosevelt was at the time the chairman of the UN Commission on Human Rights (a position she held from 1946 to 1951). (2)
"I listened to your broadcast last night and I was distressed that you felt you had to say I had written you. I had not meant to put you in that position. I just wanted you to know that I had not attacked Secretary Byrnes [Secretary of State from 1945-47].
"Perhaps I should explain what really happened. Someone asked me whether I was disappointed by the failure of the Ministers' meeting [the Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in London on October 8] and I explained that I was not disappointed because I felt a meeting of that kind required more preparation than had been possible for this one. Mr. Molotov [Soviet foreign minister from [ ] ] is an old hand and had attended other meetings but Secretary Byrnes and Mr. [Ernest] Bevin [British labor leader, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1945-51] were new, and in order to discuss controversial international questions, one had to build up among the men themselves personal confidence and liking, That had not been possible in such a short time.
"Mr. Bevin had an age old quarrel with everything that Mr. Molotov stood for and had fought the British communists in his own unions. Therefore Secretary Byrnes started out with the necessity of being an arbiter between the two...[He] had very little time to establish the kind of relationship with the other two men which would make it possible to do the job effectively..."
[with]
Typed letter signed ("Eleanor Roosevelt") to a Mr. Heuschkel, 18 September 1950, one page, 4to, on her imprinted stationery, offering advice and sympathy: "I wish we could talk together instead of writing. I suppose courage comes with belief in God, but I think it also comes through a study of history. If you will think back to the early people who settled this country who had no security whatsoever and yet they settled a great Continent. You and I have different kinds of problems, but I think we are quite as capable of meeting the problems of today...if we just take them one by one and do our best...". E. Roosevelt was at the time the chairman of the UN Commission on Human Rights (a position she held from 1946 to 1951). (2)