Fifty Years of the United Nations – Part unknown

October, 1995, marks the official 50th anniversary of the United Nations — an organization founded in the hope of achieving world peace and harmony. As we consider results of the first 50 years of U.N. existence, however, we can only reasonably conclude that 50 more years will not bring peace to the world.

Hopes for a new world order

Immediately after the end of the second world war, the United Nations was formed. The world was tired of war and aggression and placed hope for world peace in this newly-formed organization.

“Delegations from 50 united na­tions turned homeward carrying a charter for a new world organization pledged to uproot the evils leading to war and to suppress by force, if necessary, the warlike ambitions of any future would-be aggressor. Delegates frankly told thousands who sat before them at the closing session and the millions listening around the world that the charter was not perfect. But they proclaimed their faith that the na­tions represented here were deter­mined there would be no more war, and that the document framed here would help them to achieve that resolution” (The Canadian Press, October 26, 1945).

The report continued, indicating what they had done was to write the constitution of a league for the maintenance of peace and security, binding the 50 signatory nations and those which will join later to “forego war, to live in peace and brotherhood and to follow peaceful methods of settling differences. With all its complex provisions embodied in close to 16,000 words and the bulky constitution for a new world court, the essence of the charter remained the unity of the Big Five powers, who together possess 95% of the world’s potential war-making resources.”

Conflicts never did cease

Despite the rhetoric, war continued both within and outside of the U.N. At the outset, the five major world pow­ers could not even agree on a chairperson. As a result, the security council was formed. The council was initially set up as a power-sharing mechanism but was later revamped to act as the body charged with implementing world peace.

Few early military actions

At first, the peace initiatives were few and far between. They were chronicled in a book celebrating the U.N.’s first 30 years. “On rare occasions, the security council has exercised its power to initiate measures of a military nature (as in the Korean War), an economic embargo (against Southern Rhodesia), and an arms embargo (against South Africa).” Today, the peace initiatives are anything but rare.

The growth in UN peace-keeping operations

Throughout the 50-year existence of the United Nations, peace-keeping operations have grown exponentially. During its first 30 years, the UN sponsored a total of 42,000 peace keepers around the world. During May, 1995, the United Nations was sponsoring 39,576 peace keepers in the Croatia and Bosnia area alone. This fact is all the more remarkable when one considers that the first 30 years of U.N. peace-keeping operations include the 1967 Israeli conflict.

Today, the United Nations is conducting peace-keeping roles in over 50 countries around the world using close to a quarter million peace keepers.

U.S. and Russia major delinquents

In order to fuel these rising requirements, every member nation of the U.N. must contribute manpower and funding. Unfortunately, not all nations are contributing fairly to the peace-keeping operations. On June 23, 1995, Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali indicated only 48 of the 185 member states had fully paid their regular contributions. According to Mr. Boutros-Ghali’s office, the U.N. is owed nearly $2.8 billion by member nations with the United States being the worst delinquent owing $955 million, followed by Russia, which owes $600 million. Ironically, these two nations rank first and second in total military spending of all the nations in the world. In 1995, U.S. military expenditures were $297.6 billion and Russia’s were $113.8 billion in 1993 (The Economist, June 10, 1995).

Only God can bring peace

Despite all good intentions, the United Nations has failed to achieve world peace. While peace-keeping efforts are on the increase, member nations continue to spend huge amounts to increase their individual military machines.

Over the past 50 years, man has tried to obtain world peace yet has failed miserably. Clearly, world peace cannot be achieved without God’s intervention.

Ironically, world peace will come only when God’s wrath is poured out upon the nations. This marks the major difference between God’s plans and that of the United Nations. The cooperation of the involved nations will not be sought; instead the nations will be forced to cooperate by drinking the cup of God’s wrath so that a peaceful outcome can eventually be achieved.

The nations will drink the cup

Jeremiah speaks of a time when God’s wrath will be poured upon all nations. “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.’ So I took the cup from the LORD’S hand and made all the nations to whom he sent me drink it” (Jer. 25:15-19). Only on that day will a true peace come to the land.

This is the day we all look forward to and pray that it will come quickly.

On a sunny august day 50 years ago, the first atomic bomb was dropped over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Half of the bomb’s energy was released as a blast of wind, a third as heat rays and the rest as radiation. In one grim way the city was lucky. The world’s first atomic bomb was extremely crude. Only one kilogram of its 10 to 30 kilogram payload achieved fusion, an explosion that released the equivalent of 15-20 thousand tons of TNT.

The ensuing blast created a fireball hot enough to melt iron several times over. People became shadows. Clothes combusted instantaneously. The blast was so powerful, it tore a hole in the air, reversing the wind. And as the darkness spread, a black rain began to fall.

Perhaps never in history have so many people died in one instant. Yet no one knows the actual death toll be­cause the blast obliterated records along with lives. It may be that 100,000 people were immediately killed and the authorities calculated that 130-150,000 total died by the end of 1945.

“We’ll do it again”

Hours after the Hiroshima blast, the White House issued a statement warning the U.S. would keep dropping bombs on Japan as long as it took to win a complete victory. “We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city” the statement said.

The resulting Japanese defiance led to the dropping of a second and final nuclear bomb over the city of Nagasaki. The results of this more powerful atomic bomb were equally as devastating as the first.

The UN is born

From the ashes of this destruction, a worldwide organization was formed designed to ensure war would be curtailed, atrocities such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki would not be duplicated, mankind would prosper and hunger would be eliminated. On October 24, 1995, the United Nations will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. Utilizing money donated by the Rockefeller family, representatives of 51 nations met and ratified the charter of the UN.

Proper beginnings

The original United Nations was basically a club of victorious allies pledged to prevent aggression and to provide assistance to those in need. To a world that had just experienced war, it provided hope of a better future.

To pass the message of hope the United Nations brought to all Americans, a train was chartered to traverse the country and spread the good news. U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell, the sole remaining member of Congress to have been present when the charter was passed, vividly recalls the train ride and the message of the United Nations. “You could see the eyes of all those people who had been in war torn Europe light up as we passed the wheat fields and factories. We shared a spirit, a belief that we would never make the same mistakes twice; everything would be done differently now.”

Possible but not practicable

Although a look of hope was present in the eyes of many people around the continent, recent comments chronicle the difficulties that any world organization would have in achieving such goals.

“The initial concept was terribly, terribly flawed. It is, I suppose theoretically possible to set up an institution that is somehow going to be better than the people who set it up, that is going to be more responsive to an objective world view, that will identify aggressors rapidly, that will identify trouble spots rapidly, and that will have mass resources to do something about it. It is theoretically possible, but it’s very unlikely” said Charles Lichenstin, an academic from Yale University who served as alternate U.S. representative at the U.N. from 1981-84 as quoted in The New York Times, June 25, 1995.

A measure of success

Despite the difficulties, the United Nations has indeed succeeded in some aspects of its mandate over the last 50 years. For example, in 1979 an agency of the U.N., the World Health Organization, announced the worldwide eradication of small pox.

In the 1960’s the International Telecommunications Union, also a U.N. agency, implemented international direct digit dialing.

Basic goal unachieved

Yet the primary mandate of the United Nations security council has never been achieved, for it is their mandate and prime goal to ensure that peace is maintained around the world.

Within five years of establishing the peace mandate, the United Nations was put to the test. On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces attacked South Korea. This attack resulted in the Korean war which continued for three years before an armistice was signed.

Despite the armistice, the United Nations to this day maintains a demilitarized zone manned around the clock by some 2,000 troops. In every sense of the word, the demilitarized zone as well as the 2,000 troops should be redundant. Both North and South Korea are U.N. members seated along side the other “peace-loving” states accepting all the obligations of the U.N. charter.

As of August, the U.N. sponsored 23,000 peace keepers in Bosnia, over 12,000 in Croatia, another 12,000 headquartered in Zagreb and scattered throughout Bosnia and 1,000 in Macedonia. The peace keepers are on duty despite the fact that all countries involved are members of the United Nations and as such are “peace-lov­ing” states.

Nations questioning the goal

For 50 years the United Nations has attempted and failed to establish world peace. This is no surprise to Christadelphians but it is noteworthy that world leaders are now recognizing the limitations of the United Nations. Some analysts are even questioning the rationale for the very existence of the organization. Clearly, the recent humiliation of the United Nations in the Bosnian conflict has provided a witness to the world of its inadequacy to lead nations to peace.