Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere, Volume II

Editorial Note

The same statute that makes provision for United States participation in the United Nations (Public Law 264, December 20, 1945, 59 Stat. 619, as amended) provides also that the President of the United States report to the Congress of the United States on an annual basis regarding such participation. For the year 1951 this report was published as United States Participation in the United Nations: Report by the President to the Congress for the Year 1951 (Department of State Publication 4583, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1952, 320 pages). This short yet comprehensive historical account is one of two convenient official sources of information for an overview of the entire spectrum of United States–United Nations relations in the year 1951.

The Department of State Bulletin, issued on a weekly basis, is the other source. In 1951 the Bulletin contained a useful weekly feature, “The United States in the United Nations.” The Bulletin also printed the texts of statements, speeches, and articles by officials at the highest levels in regard to the conduct of United States foreign policy at the United Nations. Among these to be noted for the year 1951 are:

(1) “The United States Faces Aggression”, address by Ernest A. Gross, Deputy United States Representative at the United Nations, Washington, D.C., December 29, 1950 (Department of State Bulletin, January 8, 1951, page 57);

(2) “Analysis of Soviet Performance in the United Nations”, address also by Gross, New York, N.Y., February 17, 1951 (ibid., March 5, 1951, page 390);

(3) “The Phony ‘Peace’ Offensive: Soviet Charges Against the United Nations”, address by John D. Hickerson, Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs, Milwaukee, Wis., April 27, 1951 (ibid., May 7, 1951, page 731);

(4) “Can the U.N. Become a Collective Security Organization?”, article by Harding F. Bancroft, Deputy United States Representative on the Collective Measures Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations (Department of State Bulletin, May 14, 1951, page 771);

(5) “U.N. Action on Collective Security: What it Means to Americans”, address by Assistant Secretary of State Hickerson, Washington, D.C., April 25, 1951 (ibid., May 14, 1951, page 775);

(6) “The United Nations and the United States—July 1951”, address by Deputy United States Representative Gross, Charlottesville, Va., July 11, 1951 (ibid., July 30, 1951, page 183);

(7) “U.S. Participation in the United Nations”, a Message of the President to the Congress (transmitting annual report for 1950), July 26, 1951 (ibid, August 13, 1951, page 262);

(8) “International Unity Against Shifting Soviet Tactics: U.N. Actions Against Causes of War”, address by Warren R. Austin, United States Representative at the United Nations, New York, N.Y., August 27, 1951 (ibid., September 10, 1951, page 425);

(9) “Good Faith Among Nations Needed to Achieve U.N. Goals”, General Debate Statement to the General Assembly of the United Nations by Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Paris, France, November 8, 1951 (ibid., November 19, 1951, page 803).

As set forth in the statements, etc., cited above, the general effort of United States policy at the United Nations in 1951 was to formulate an identity of United States and United Nations principles in the establishment of a peaceful world. The specific thrust of United States policy was to organize a collective security system to resist aggression and to counteract spurious Soviet peace propaganda at the United Nations. More often than not, the war in Korea was the occasion for these official United States pronouncements. President Truman on July 26, 1951 described the United States record at the United Nations as one “of decision and action in the face of danger and, at the same time, a record of increasing efforts to promote human progress.”