Editorial Note
The Third Session of the United Nations General Assembly convened in Paris on September 21. For the record of the address by Secretary of State Marshall, Chairman of the United States Delegation, on September 23 during the general debate phase of proceedings, see United Nations, Oficial Records of the General Assembly, Third Session, Part I, Plenary Meetings, page 36; for full text, see Department of State Bulletin, October 3, 1948, page 432.
The Paris General Assembly is described as follows in United States Participation in the United Nations (Report by the President to the Congress for the Year 1948), Department of State Publication 3437, page 5:
“The work of the Session in the political field was conditioned largely by the continuing differences between the Soviet Union and the other Members. In all the important political questions considered except that of Palestine, i.e. the questions of atomic energy, the reduction and regulation of conventional armaments, Greece, Korea, the veto, membership in the United Nations, and the Interim Committee, the issues were sharply drawn between Soviet and non-Soviet views. Consideration of these questions—particularly those of atomic energy, reduction of conventional armaments, and the Greek question—led to debates on foreign policies generally and on the broad issues separating the Soviet Union from other countries.
Concern was manifested by many of the delegations from smaller countries over the serious differences among the great powers reflected in Assembly debates and in the Berlin case, which was then under consideration by the Security Council. A resolution proposed by Mexico, calling upon the major allied powers to compose their differences and to reach as quickly as possible the agreements necessary to liquidate the results of the war and establish peace, was adopted by the Assembly.”
Documentation on General Assembly consideration of the issues mentioned above is included in the following Foreign Relations compilations: regulation of armaments and collective security, Part 1 of General Assembly, volume VI, pages 1079 ff.; interest of the United Nations, volume IV, pages 222 ff.; general political policies of the United States toward Korea and the appeal to the United Nations General Assembly, volume VI, pages 1079 ff.; interest of the United States in increasing the effectiveness of the United Nations: the Interim Committee and the question of voting in the Security Council, Part 1 of this volume, pages 205 ff.; United States policy regarding the question of admittance of new members into the United Nations, ibid., pages 173 ff.; the Berlin crisis, volume II, pages 867 ff.; and the United States position regarding proposals for a General Assembly appeal to the Great Powers to renew their efforts to compose their [Page 634] differences and establish a lasting peace, Part 1 of this volume, pages 89 ff.