82. Telegram 5150 From the Mission to the United Nations to the Department of State, October 18, 1975, 1818Z.1 2
TELEGRAM
Department of State
USUN 5150
R 181818Z OCT 75
FM USMISSION USUN NY
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 3048
USUN 5150
DEPT PASS ALL DIPLOMATIC POSTS
E.O. 11652: GDS
TAGS: UNGA, SHUM,
PFOR
SUBJ: WHEREIN THE UNITED NATIONS COMMENCES TO SELF DESTRUCT; THE BLACK AFRICANS STAND UP FOR THEIR OWN INTERESTS AND BREAK WITH THE ARABS; THE FASCISTS IN CHILE AND ASSORTED LIKE-MINDED FOLK IN LATIN AMERICA LINE UP WITH THE ANTI-SEMITES OF OTHER EQUALLY PROGRESSIVE PARTS OF THE WORLD; AND WHEREIN WHAT IS MORE THE UNITED STATES FOR ONCE ENDS UP IN FIT AND SUFFICIENT COMPANY
1. JOYCE HIT UPON THE TERM EPIPHANY FOR SUCH MOMENTS OF SHOWING THROUGH. “ITS SOUL,” HE WROTE, “ITS WHATNESS LEAPS TO US FROM THE VESTMENT OF ITS APPEARANCE...THE OBJECT ACHIEVES ITS EPIPHANY.” IT HAPPENED YESTERDAY TO THE UNITED NATIONS.
2. SELF DESTRUCTION IS THE FIRST THING THAT SHOWED THROUGH. NOT PERHAPS INAPPROPRIATELY, IT WAS THE IRISH AMBASSADOR, STANDING IN THE BACK OF COMMITTEE ROOM THREE AS THE FINAL VOTE APPROACHED IN WHICH THE WORLD ORGANIZATION WOULD PUT ITSELF ON THE POINT OF OFFICIALLY ENDORSING ANTI-SEMITISM, WHO SAID “THE UNITED NATIONS IS DESTROYING ITSELF; THIS NIGHT, IN THIS ROOM.”
3. AND YET STRONG THINGS SHOWED THROUGH ALSO. THE MOST STRIKING WAS THAT THE BLACK AFRICANS BROKE WITH THE ARABS WHO PROPOSED TO USE THEM IN THE MOST CYNICAL AND SELF SERVING WAY, NOT, ONE MIGHT ADD, FOR THE FIRST TIME RECORDED IN HISTORY. IN THIS REGARD, THE UNITED STATES TOOK THE INITIATIVE ON OCTOBER THREE BY MAKING UNMISTAKABLY CLEAR THAT TO EQUATE ZIONISM WITH RACISM WAS AN OBSCENE ACT THAT COULD ONLY END BY ABORTING THE PROPOSED DECADE TO COMBAT RACISM AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, AN EFFORT WHICH THE AFRICANS HAS PROPOSED, AND FOR WHICH, IN THE ABSENCE OF THE PLO-ARAB-SOVIET BLOCK DEMARCHE, WOULD HAVE WON UNANIMOUS SUPPORT IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. THE WEST EUROPEANS WERE PERSUADED TO JOIN US IN THE POSITION THAT WE WOULD VOTE IN COMMITTEE FOR EACH OF THE TWO RESOLUTIONS ESTABLISHING THE DECADE TO COMBAT RACISM, AND AGAINST THE RESOLUTION EQUATING ZIONISM WITH RACISM, WITH PRIOR UNDERSTANDING THAT IF THE LATTER RESOLUTION PASSED, WE WOULD THEREFORE VOTE AGAINST ALL THREE RESOLUTIONS WHEN THEY CAME TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. THE AFRICAN STATES, WHICH ARE PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF SEEING THEIR TRUE INTERESTS IN SUCH MATTERS, SAW THAT THE ARABS WERE TAKING SOMETHING OF VALUE FROM THEM AND GIVING NOTHING IN RETURN. IN THE KEY VOTE ON A RESOLUTION OF SIERRA LEONE, SECONDED BY ZAMBIA, TO PUT OFF CONSIDERATION OF THE ANTI-SEMITIC RESOLUTION UNTIL 1976, ONLY 42 PERCENT OF THE BLACK AFRICAN STATES VOTED WITH THE ARABS. IN THE FINAL VOTE, ON THE ANTI-SEMITIC RESOLUTION ITSELF, ONLY ABOUT HALF THE AFRICANS VOTED WITH THE ARABS. AS THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTS THIS MORNING, “A YEAR AGO, THE ARABS HAD AN ‘AUTOMATIC MAJORITY’ OF COMMUNIST, AFRICAN AND ASIAN NATIONS AND THE NERVOUS ABSTENTIONS OF MOST WEST EUROPEANS.” WELL, THIS TIME THE WEST EUROPEANS GOT HOLD OF THEIR NERVE, AND AS THE POST REPORT CONTINUES, “THE AFRICANS REBELLED.”
4. APART FROM THIS, THE MOST STRIKING SHOWING THROUGH WAS THAT OF LATIN AMERICA, WHICH OVERWHELMINGLY SIDED WITH THE COMMUNIST AND ANTI-SEMITE SIDE. ONLY THE TINY STATES OF COSTA RICA (GOD LOVE THEM) THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, HAITI, NICARAGUA, AND URUGUAY DARED TO VOTE WITH THE DEMOCRACIES ON THIS ISSUE. ALL THE OTHERS COLLAPSED, NAY GROVELED IN THE FACE OF COMMUNIST THREAT, ARAB MONEY, AND THE NO DOUBT IRRESISTIBLE OPPORTUNITY TO BE VICIOUS.
5. THE MOST EPIPHANIC ACT OF THE EVENING WAS THE VOTE BY CHILE IN FAVOR OF THE COMMUNISTS AND THE ARABS. WE HAVE NO RELIABLE INFORMATION AS TO WHY THEY DID THIS. OPINION IN THE US MISSION IS ABOUT EQUALLY DIVIDED. ONE GROUP HOLDS THAT FASCISTS ARE NATURALLY ANTI-SEMITIC, AND THAT THE GENERALS WERE ONLY DOING WHAT CAME NATURALLY. ANOTHER, LESS HISTORICAL, MORE CYNICAL GROUP, HOLDS THAT OPINION IN THE UN CORRIDORS IS CORRECT, NAMELY THAT THE CHILEANS SOLD THEIR VOTE TO THE ARABS IN RETURN FOR AGREEMENT NOT TO PRESS THE REPORT OF THE WORKING GROUP OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, PUBLISHED THIS WEEK, THAT THE CHILEAN GOVERNMENT IS OPERATING “TORTURE CENTERS” THROUGHOUT THE LENGTH AND SUCH BREADTH AS THERE IS OF THAT UNHAPPY COUNTRY. A FRACTION OF EMBASSY OPINION NOT NOTED FOR ACCURACY, BUT NONETHELESS DIFFICULT TO DISMISS, CLAIMS THAT THROUGH A COMPLEX CIPHER IT CAN BE SHOWN THAT PINOCHET IS ACTUALLY ALLENDE IN DISGUISE AND THERE HAS BEEN NO CHANGE.
6. LASTLY THERE SHOULD BE NOTED THAT WHILE ONLY TWENTY NINE NATIONS VOTED AGAINST THE ANTI-SEMITIC RESOLUTION, THE UNITED STATES CAN BE PROUD OF THE COMPANY IT WAS IN. AN ISSUE OF HONOR, OF MORALITY WAS PUT BEFORE US, AND NOT ALL OF US RAN. MOYNIHAN
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files. Confidential. On November 10, United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/3379 (XXX) declared Zionism to be a form of racism and racial discrimination. Statements of disapproval by Garment, Moynihan, and Ford are published in Department of State Bulletin, December 1, 1975, pp. 788–796.↩
- Moynihan reported to Kissinger on an October 17 vote in the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee of the United Nations General Assembly that equated Zionism with racism.↩