Eleanor Roosevelt and radio in early Cold War France

ABSTRACT

The American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was a prolific writer, public speaker and broadcaster. She appeared on her own radio programs in the 1930s, 40s and 50s and those of others, both in the US and abroad. In many of her daily newspaper columns over the years, Mrs. Roosevelt spoke of the importance of international radio and seemed to suggest there was a unique role for the medium as a way to reach ordinary men and women. Of the Voice of America, she said it played a vital role in spreading understanding of the American way of life and American democracy. This paper looks at American broadcasting to France in the early Cold War and considers two broadcasts Mrs. Roosevelt made while in France with the United Nations: a 1948 episode of the program Changement de Decors and a series of weekly talks about the UN for the French service in 1951–52.     

Amid domestication and Afriexit: whither Nigeria and South Africa on the International Criminal Court?

There is a silent revolution going on among African states regarding the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Some states that previously signed the Statute refused to ratify it. Some that ratified the Statute refused to domesticate it. Some that domesticated it withdrew or threatened to withdraw from it. Some that withdrew from it revoked their withdrawal. The African Union called for the mass withdrawal of African states from the Statute. Amid this storm of domestication and Afriexit, this study probes the question: what will be the status of Nigeria and South Africa on the ICC by 2022, considering the events in these states so far, evidence from data and the spate of domestication and exit procedures in homogeneous African states in contemporary times? The objectives of the study are to predict the status of Nigeria and South Africa by 2022 and reflect on the implication of the predictions for the on-going viability, sustainability and credibility of the ICC. It predicts that Nigeria has a zero per cent indication of domesticating the Statute. South Africa has 100 per cent positive indication to remain an ICC state party.     

Syngman rhee: The pawn as rook the struggle to end the Korean war

Abstract

A quarter century ago, in 1951–53, while trying to end the Korean war, the Truman and Eisenhower administrations struggled to keep Syngman Rhee, the president of the Republic of Korea [ROK] , from undermining the negotiations, wrecking the armistice, endangering the United Nations forces, and extending the war. Often it was unclear whether or not he would abide by the armistice and whether or not he would leave the ROK troops under the UN Command, or imperil the UN forces by withdrawing his own. General Mark Clark, the American and United Nations commander in the last year of war, aptly summarized the problems, “I found myself engaged in a two-front diplomatic battle ... with the ... Communists and with ... Rhee [, and] the biggest trouble came from Rhee.” As Rhee's price for acceding to the armistice of July 27, 1953, he secured from the Eisenhower administration generous economic aid, continued military assistance, and a mutual defense treaty, which has endured to the present. Before the armistice, however, military and political leaders in both administrations seriously considered toppling Rhee and installing a more tractable government.