WHAT’S THE STORY?

IT was 75 years ago today that President Harry S Truman signed the charter of the United Nations Organisation, committing the USA to being a member of the world’s greatest international alliance.

The charter had been drawn up by representatives of 50 countries and it is very much worth recalling that the USA was the prime mover for much of the UN’s development. America hosted the two month conference and final meeting in San Francisco on June 25, 1945, that formally established the UN. The USA also offered to provide the land for the UN headquarters which were built at Turtle Bay in Manhattan, New York, and opened in 1952.

HOW DID THE RELATIONSHIP START?

WITH the charter itself. There was much discussion on items such as the Security Council and at one time the San Francisco Conference looked in danger of breaking up. Eventually agreement was reached and was signed by the delegates on June 26. Truman needed the approval of Congress before signing the Charter as head of state, which he did on August 8, 1945.

He did so with surely an acknowledgement of the irony of his position – he had authorised the atomic bombing of Hiroshima two days previously and had already given the order to drop the Nagasaki bomb the following day.

We should always remember the Charter: “We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.

“And for these ends to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims.”

WHEN DID PROBLEMS BETWEEN THE USA AND UN FIRST APPEAR?

GIVEN that the UN was largely the brainchild of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it is not entirely remarkable that the USA drove the start of the organisation and even before the Charter was signed, the US delegates made it clear that they had to be on the proposed Security Council.

Each of the Big Five – the US, UK, USSR, The People’s Republic of China and France – became a permanent member of the Council and the USSR successfully argued that there should be power of veto for each Security Council member.

It was the Soviets’ use of the veto which caused much tension within the UN in its early days and as the Cold War developed there was friction both in the Security Council and the General Assembly. Yet even after the break up of the Soviet Union, the UN is still one of the few forums where the USA and Russia can meet and discuss matters.

WHAT HAVE BEEN THE MAJOR FALLOUTS?

ONE of the biggest was over the Korean War. At the end of the war, Korea was divided along the 38th parallel with China and the USSR backing Communist North Korea, while the UN officially backed the South.

When the North invaded the South in 1950, the UN went to war, led by the USA which provided 90% of the troops on the ground and almost all of the aircraft which were to prove crucial in a war in which three million people – both soldiers and civilians – died before a ceasefire in 1953.

The USA’s support for Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, was a major point of conflict, and the USSR boycotted the Security Council over the issue in 1950. Had they not done so, they could have used their veto to stop the UN going to war in Korea.

American support for Israel is a given, so for the last 50 years or so, any condemnation of the Israeli Government by the UN has been vetoed.

The US Congress has frequently debated reform of the UN and on several occasions the USA’s funding – it is the largest funder of the UN by far – has been suspended because the UN did not do what the USA wanted.