Office of the Historian

Executive Order No. 9844, April 28, 1947, Establishing the United States Mission at the United Nations1

New York, April 28, 1947

By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 (59 Stat. 619) and as President of the United States, and for the purpose of defining further the functions of the Representative of the United States in the United Nations, it is hereby ordered as follows:

1.
The Representative at the seat of the United Nations, the Deputy Representative to the Security Council, Representatives in the Economic and Social Council and its Commissions, the Trusteeship Council, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Commission for Conventional Armaments and the Military Staff Committee, and representatives to organs and agencies of the United Nations hereafter appointed or designated and included within the United States Mission to the United Nations herein provided for, together with their deputies, staffs and offices, shall be known as the United States Mission to the United Nations.2
2.
The Representative of the United States at the seat of the United Nations shall be the Chief of Mission in charge of the United States Mission to the United Nations. The Chief of Mission shall coordinate at the seat of the United Nations the activities of the Mission in carrying out the instructions of the President transmitted either by the Secretary of State or by other means of transmission as directed by the President. Instructions to the Representatives of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Military Staff Committee of the United Nations shall be transmitted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On request of the Chief of Mission, such Representatives shall, in addition to their responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations, serve as advisers in the United States Mission to the United Nations.
3.
The Chief of Mission shall also be responsible for the administration of the Mission, including personnel, budget, obligation and expenditure of funds, and the central administrative services; provided that he shall not be responsible for the internal administration of the personnel, budget, and obligation and expenditure of funds of the United States Representatives in the Military Staff Committee. The Chief of Mission shall discharge his responsibilities under this paragraph in accordance with such rules and regulations as the Secretary of State may from time to time prescribe.
4.
This order shall be published in the Federal Register.

Harry S. Truman

The White House,
April 28, 1947

  1. From March 19, 1946, when the offices of the United States Representative at the United Nations, the United States Representative on the Economic and Social Council, and their staffs were formally opened at the Seat of the United Nations in New York, these were known collectively as the United States Delegation to the United Nations (for documentation on this subject, see Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. i, pp. 1 ff.). After one year’s experience in staffing and servicing the United States representation to various United Nations activities, including the General Assembly session held in New York in the autumn of 1946, it was considered desirable to refine further the organization of these New York offices, and the result was this executive order of April 28, 1947.↩

  2. The United States Representative at the Seat of the United Nations was also the United States Representative on the Security Council of the United Nations, on the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, and on the United Nations Commission for Conventional Armaments; these posts were thus held concurrently, and the incumbent was Ambassador Warren R. Austin. According to the United Nations Participation Act of 1945, the United States Representative at the United Nations also functioned as Senior United States Representative to the General Assembly of the United Nations, when the General Assembly was in session, except when the Secretary of State was present.

    At this time (April 1947) there was no incumbent United States Representative on the Economic and Social Council, and Leroy D. Stinebower of the Department of State was serving as Acting United States Representative; subsequently in July 1947 Willard L. Thorp, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, was appointed to fill this vacancy. In February 1947 Francis B. Sayre had been appointed United States Representative on the Trusteeship Council.

    For other United States representation to United Nations organs, subsidiary organs, commissions, committees, and the specialized agencies, see The United States and the United Nations: Report by the President to the Congress for the Year 1947 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1948).

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