FOREWORD

On April 24, 1955, the Communist Daily Worker wrote:

This is one of those instances where the truth is sufficiently horrible that the Communist propagandists do not have to lie. In the two decades since the United Nations was created, it has expanded into a giant international bureaucracy with tentacles reaching into every sphere of human activity from matrimony to garbage collecting. Americans by the millions have indeed made the emotional pilgrimage and genuflected before the UN "shrine of peace." But, having looked at the United Natttions, most of us have not seen. We have seen the building, and the flag, and pictures of meetings where delegates listen to each other over earphones; but we have not seen the real United Nations--its purpose, its philosophy, its ultimate goals. To recognize these things, we will have to look much deeper than the glittering phrases about peace and brotherhood or the ringing manifestos on human rights and let the facts speak for themselves.

Wherever possible, quotations used in this book are from original sources. These sources have been thoroughly footnoted in hopes that the skeptic will check them out. Some may feel that there are too many quotes and footnotes. But this book was not meant to be one of those easy-to-read jobs that can be glanced through with one eye on the TV set. It is a documentary and should be approached as such.

Most of the documentation is taken from those people or sources friendly to the United Nations. For instance, the opening sequence is a direct quote from Smith Hempstone, African correspondent for the Chicago News. Hempstone's views, in his own words, are as follows:

Likewise, the forty-six civilian doctors of Elisabethville, who provided some of the most horrifying eyewitness accounts of United Nations atrocities, have declared: ". . . we believe in UNO [the United Nations]. . . . We proclaim that such an organization is necessary for maintaining peace in the world and fair betterment of the underdeveloped natons."

While on the subject of Katanga, it should be made clear that the section of this book dealing with the Congo is not meant to be a glorification of Katanga and Tshombe; it is meant to spotlight the United Nations action in Katanga. We are not being asked to pay homage to Katanga nor are we being asked to transfer our political sovereignty, our economy, and our military security to Katanga; we are being asked to do these things for the United Nations. It is for this reason that we need to take a close and searching look at this mammoth organization. And, just as one picture is worth a thousand words, one case history is worth a thousand theoretical arguments.

This is by no means an exhaustive treatment of the subject. If the reader wants a detailed explanation of the structure of the United Nations, how the organization functions mechanically, or what relation one subdivision has with another, he can find countless volumes in a public library. All of this is academic in the minds of most people, anyway. The citizens of Katanga who were dying under United Naations bombs were not concerned over whether the air attacks had been authorized by the Security Council, the General Assembly or the Military Staff Committee, or whether it took a two-thirds vote or only a majority vote.

Nor has the tremendous financial burden that membership in the United Naions places on the shoulders of American taxpayers been discussed. After all, mere money is relatively unimportant. If the UN really were what most people think it is, it would be well worth the investment. The real cost of our membership will not, in the end, be measured in terms of dollars and cents; it will be counted out in terms of lost freedoms, despair and human suffering.

This is not an attempt to present an "objective" view of the United Nations. If the reader wants to acquaint himself with the other side he need only turn on his radio or TV, or glance through the pages of his favorite newspaper or magazine. The other side has been presented almost without challenge by every conceivable means--books, movies, plays, speeches, editorials, pamphlets, posters, and poetry. It has been promoted by politicians, athletes, movie stars, teachers, beauty queens, and businessmen. By comparison, the case against the United Nations has been relegated almost entirely to the media of mimeographed news letters and hastily compiled fact sheets put out by housewives and neighborhood study groups. Radio and TV time is usually denied on the basis that such a point of view is "controversial." It is as though history had slipped back 450 years. When Galileo attempted to demonstrate the theory that the earth was not the center of the universe, he was imprisoned and condemned as follows:

Now, as then, history will be the judge.