IO Files
Press Release No. 1031 Issued by the United States Mission at the United Nations, October 25, 1950
Statement by Ambassador Warren R. Austin
The United States Delegation believes that Mr. Trygve Lie should be strongly supported by the United Nations for extension of his term or reelection as Secretary-General.
The United States believes so strongly that Mr. Lie should continue to hold this office that the United States Representative on the Security Council has made it clear that in this situation he would strongly oppose any other candidate for the office.
The position is that Mr. Lie has received nine votes in the Security Council, a majority sufficient to elect him if it had not been for the veto of the Soviet Union.
[Page 171]On the day that the vote was taken, October 12th, the New York Times published a message from Generalissimo Stalin to the North Korean Premier encouraging the enemies of the United Nations effort to repel aggression in Korea.
The member of the Security Council who vetoed Mr. Lie is the member who has attempted by every possible device to frustrate the fifty-three members of the United Nations who are struggling to make the organization work.
I feel that the choice of Mr. Lie for office is a matter that concerns the security of my own country, the security of the Far East, the Middle East and the Western hemisphere.
We must prevent future aggression anywhere in the world.
Mr. Lie has been the steadfast advocate and executive of the unity of the fifty-three nations in resisting armed aggression. He has been steadfast in building the principles of the United Nations to stand in place of force.
I do not believe that Mr. Lie now must bow down and take the rod on his back from the country that has been arguing the case of the Korean aggressors in the United Nations.
He should have the united support of those members whose cause he has supported.
No other man could take this office knowing that his predecessor had been condemned because he carried out the policies of the United Nations fearlessly and impartially. Anyone holding that office would forever after stand under the shadow of any permanent member that opposed United Nations policies.
I have indicated to the permanent members of the Security Council that I am ready to thwart the Soviet veto of Mr. Lie by every means in my power.
I do not believe a veto will become necessary but the great moral principle of the unity of the free powers is at stake and I do not fear to use whatever means I can to maintain that unity.
The settled purpose of my delegation is to use all its resources to prevent an attempt to punish and repudiate Mr. Lie, an attempt made in clear defiance of the majority of the members of the Security Council.
The United States believes that in supporting Mr. Lie it is vindicating the cause for which so many young men and women of the United Nations have given their lives. I could not face their parents and friends if I did not use every means at my disposal to prove that the United Nations is grateful to them and supports them here as they have supported the United Nations on the Korean battlefields.