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THEU.N. -AT
30
Deep Trouble
Behind
the
Facade
by
Kelth Stump
l
lslng lmpresslvely from .the banks of
34%
eárlier thls year - has been even
New York Clty's East Rlver, the ti.orther eroded by the U.N. vote.
Unlted Natlons'
tal!,
.stately Secre-
lncreasing
number~
of Americans are
tarlat building and the nelghboring demanding the complete wl!hdrawal of
General Assembly, Conference. and U- ' the U.S. from the Unitad Nations. Some
brary bultdlngs project an lmage of dig- are even calling for 4he removal of U.N.
nlty, stabllity, and purpose.
headquarters from U.S. soil and lts trans-
Few visltors walklng for the first ti!l1e ,•
~lántation
in Vienna, G!!neva, or; more
into the r¡1odern, wetl· llt lobby of the Gen: "'- cyf!ically, in Antarctlca. At1he least. most
' eral Assembly building fall to be im- Americans would like to see sorne sort of
pressed by a sense of far-reachi ng curtailmenr of the huge U.s'. conti'ibution
importance. ·Surely, behlnd these walls to the U.N. budgel
serious diplomats lrom around the globe
•The U.S. has contributad more than
are carefully pondering and resolving one third of all funds receivad by the U.N.
weighty maners of great lntemational sig- in,the course of its 30-year history. This.
-~
nificance - strlving, In the words of the yeár Washington is footing
25% ($81 .3'
U.N. Charter, " to save succeeding gener- miiUon) of the total U.N. budget of
$325.1
ationslrom the scourge of llfar."
mjlno(l. Al the S8/lle time, the SoYiet .·
But behlnd thls lllusory facade lles the Union, its allies, and many developing
increasingly appar.ent reallty - the Unitad Tl\ird Wortd nations remain heavi ly in ar-
Nations,
30
years old last month, is in rears, refusing to pay their full ·stoare de-
deep
troub~e.
spite their continuad utillz.atior1 of the
"l_nfamoua Aet"
In an actlon strongly denounced by the
Unitad States, the U.N. General Assembly
in early November votad
72
to
35,
with
32
abstentlons and
3
natlons absent, to de–
clare Zionism - the movement to set up a
Jewish natlonal homeland In Palestina -
"a form of racisr'n and racial dlscrlmina-
tlon."
·
Chlam Herzog, lsrael's Brltish-edu–
cated ambassador. declarad that In pass–
ing the resolution, the U.N. "had been
dragged to its lowest polnt of dlscredlt by
a coalitlon of despotlsm and racista."
Outspoken U.S. Ambassador Daniel
Moynihan also vigorously assailed the
Arab-sponsored resolutlon. asserting that
the U.S. " does not acknowladge, it will
not ablde by, it will never acquiesce in
thls lnfamous act."
Presiden! Gerald Ford termed the
U.N.'s vote " a wholly unj ustifiad action,"
and Secretary of State Klsslnger sald the
Unitad States " wilt
pay
no attentíon" ,to
the resolution. The U.S. Senate and
House of Representativas both passed bi–
partisan resolutíons condemning the U.N.
action.
And in what may have been the blunt–
est denunciation
of
all, Senator Bob
Packwood declarad: "Wherever Hitler
may have been last nlght, l 'm sure he
drank a toast to the devil and rattled his
cagel"
The passage of the anti-Zionlst resolu–
tion sparkad strong reaetiÓn among the
U.S. public' as welt. Long-smoldering re–
sentment toward the U.N. flared into
mass proles! rallles and demonstrations
across the natlon. Publlc approval of the
world body - whlch had dropped from a
hlgh of 87% In
1959
to an all-tlme low of
U.N. forum,
The U.N. carries on its books
65.4
mi l–
lion In ·overdue assessments against na–
tlons refusing to pay. Over one hall of thls
- $36.4
million - is owed by th,e Soviet
Union, Byalorussia, and the Ukraine, the
three votes the Soviets have In the Gen–
eral Assembly.
This situation, couplad with what many
see as increasingly lrresponslble and
reckless actions in the General Assembly,
has seriously threatenad continuad U.S.
particlpation in the world body. The re–
·cent public outcry has seemlngly glven
credence to last year's warning by then
U.S. Ambassádor to the U.N.. John Scall
that a "tyranny of the majority" - the
militan! and nationalistic Third World ma–
jority bloc - threatened to undermlne
U.S. support of the wortd body:
Hoflow Aesolutions
In the debate over the
Worth
of the
Unitad Nations,
lile
widely respectad ac·
tivities
of
its. specializad agencies :.. lo
which -over 80% of the U.N. budget goes
- are generafly not at issue. Such
agencies as UNICEF (U.N. Chlldren's
Fund), WHO (Wortd Health Organiz.ation),
and FAO (Food and Agricultura! Organl–
zation) are playing a vital role in beHering
the daily existence of the wortd's impov–
erishad.
The focal point of the controversy is the
U.N. -General Assembly. Once bllled as
the "Íown meeting of !he world" where
nations could gatber for constructiva dia–
logue and problem solving, that body
1~
lncreaslngly being used for purposes
other than !hose intended by the archl·
tec"ts of the organiz.ation.
1t
ls not uncom–
mon these
days
to see the lnternatjonal
forum being used for spreading of self-
WEEK ENDINO DECEMBER
6,
1975