Editorial Note
An official United States statement regarding Soviet propaganda about leaving the United Nations was included in a speech made at Milwaukee, Wisconsin on April 27 by John D. Hickerson, Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs. For text, see Department of State Bulletin, May 7, 1951, pages 731 ff. The speech was entitled “The ‘Phony’ Peace Offensive” and the remarks regarding the United Nations were incorporated under a subheading entitled “Answering Soviet Charges Against U.N.”.
Assistant Secretary Hickerson said in part:
“The Soviets charge that the United Nations has failed because it has turned into a docile instrument of United States policy. This is nothing but an absurd way of saying that the majority of free nations of the world have been alert to Soviet subversion. …
“The United States cannot honestly be blamed because other nations find their interests at odd with those of the Soviet Union. The Soviets are themselves responsible. Their unreasonable and uncompromising positions have engendered a real fear among the majority of the members of the United Nations. …
“In organizing its phony ‘peace’ campaign, what has the Kremlin in mind concerning the future of the United Nations? That is anybody’s [Page 472] guess on this side of the iron curtain. This ‘peace’ campaign professes a wish to bring the United Nations back to its original purposes. In this manner the World Peace Council seeks to discredit the United Nations and thus lessen the stigma of the United Nations’ denunciation of the North Korean and Chinese Communist aggression.
“By building up their World Peace Council, the Soviets seek to exert propaganda pressure against the United Nations—a sort of blackmail. …
“… We are not, however, blind to Soviet aims and tactics, and we must not allow them to subvert the United Nations to their ends. We have fought their attempts to do this since 1945 and will continue our efforts to strengthen the United Nations as an effective organization on world peace. …
“If they insist on slandering the United Nations, we must lay the blame for the inadequacies of that organization squarely where it belongs—on the Soviet Union and its policies of obstruction and subversion. We must block the Kremlin’s efforts to deceive and divide.”