Editorial Note
The documentation in this and other volumes of the 1949 Foreign Relations series records in some detail the policy of the United States Government, in both general principle and specific application, to make the United Nations the focus of this Government’s world policy; and to support and strengthen the United Nations to make it an effectively functioning world organization for the purposes set forth in the San Francisco Charter of 1945. This United States policy was given unmistakable direction by President Truman in statements on two significant occasions in 1949: the President’s own inauguration on January 20 and the cornerstone ceremony at the permanent headquarters of the United Nations in New York City on October 24.
The first statement was embodied in Point 1 of President Truman’s inaugural address of January 20 (for text see Department of State Bulletin, January 30, 1949, pages 123–126):
“… we will continue to give unfaltering support to the United Nations and related agencies, and we will continue to search for ways to strengthen their authority and increase their effectiveness. We believe that the United Nations will be strengthened by the new nations which are being formed in lands now advancing toward self-government under democratic principles.”
In his address at the United Nations cornerstone ceremony on October 24 President Truman explained the mandate behind United States support for the United Nations.
“The United Nations was essentially an expression of the moral nature of man’s aspirations. The Charter clearly showed the determination that international problems must be settled on a basis acceptable to the conscience of mankind.
[Page 31]“Because the United Nations was the dynamic expression of what all the peoples of the world desired, because it set up a standard of right and justice for all nations, it was greater than any of its Members. The compact that underlay the United Nations could not be ignored, neither could it be infringed or dissolved.…
“The laying of the corner-stone was an act of faith, the unshakable faith that the United Nations would succeed in accomplishing the great tasks for which it had been created.
“But faith without works was dead. Member States must make their devotion to the ideals of the Charter as strong as the steel in the Headquarters Building. They must pursue the objectives of the Charter with resolution as firm as the rock on which the building rested. They must conduct their affairs four-square with the Charter, in terms as true as the corner-stone.
“If they did those things, the United Nations would endure and would bring the blessings of peace and well-being to mankind.” (United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fourth Session, Plenary Meetings, pages 169–171)
How the pronouncement of such principles and Objectives affected the day-to-day problems of policy formulation in the Department of State was described by Dean Rusk, Deputy Under Secretary of State for political affairs, in a San Francisco speech on October 21: “I know from direct experience that the standards of the Charter make themselves felt in the great mass of decisions which are made daily … ‘How does this fit the Charter?’ ‘How will this look in the United Nations?’ These are constantly recurring questions where decisions are being made on difficult matters of policy.” (Department of State Bulletin, October 31, 1949, page 653)
Those in the Department of State who were most concerned on a daily basis with giving practical effect to the President’s program were the leadership and officers of the Bureau of United Nations Affairs (UNA). The following document is printed as affording some insight into the kind of thinking the UNA officers were bringing to bear on the problem at the planning level.