BATTLE OF LAKE SUCCESS: Junior S.O.B.

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Reporter: Well, in the U.S. the first word we teach our babies is da. Maybe there's a difference between your country and mine.

Malik (grinning): The first word we teach them is nyet.

These days, there seems not an amiable bone left in Malik's body. (His drinking habits seem symbolic. At U.S. parties, Malik used to be a smooth, sociable guest or host, not averse to a cocktail or Bourbon & water. Recently, in the Security Council delegates' lounge, he has stuck to fruit juice or soda water.) Says Norway's Arne Sunde: "Malik is very rude. And he looks as if he believed in his rudeness."

Malik is probably not capable of believing anything he was not taught to believe. Once a couple of years ago, after an affable dinner and a round of brandy, a Western diplomat asked him point-blank why he acted the way he did. Malik hesitated a moment, then calmly replied: "But I must obey my instructions." There seemed to be no cynicism in the answer.

One seasoned U.S. envoy sums up Malik : "Well, he's one of their junior S.O.B.s."

Ties with the Front. Despite the S.O.B.'s best disruptive efforts, the Korean crisis has brought a new sense of purpose to most of U.N.'s 3,200 staffers— except the 300 to 400 Communists and fellow travelers who are apt to skulk in corners (Western delegations try to bypass them to get necessary work done).

U.N. senses the bonds which tie Lake Success to the Korean battlefront. The blue and white U.N. flag flies from General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters in Tokyo's Dai Ichi building; it flies also, with Korean and U.S. flags, in embattled South Korea. MacArthur carries on a cordial correspondence with U.N.'s Secretary General Trygve Lie, has periodic talks with Lie's personal representative, Colonel Alfred G. Katzin of South Africa, and on his last flying visit to Korea, called on U.N.'s Korean Commission in Pusan (which maintains telephone contact with Lake Success).

Last week, on the front near Waegwan, the U.N. commission suffered its first casualty. Its alternate member, Colonel Unni Nayar of India, and two British correspondents with him (see PRESS) were killed when the colonel's jeep ran over a land mine.

There was no doubt that Jacob Malik's presence cast an ugly shadow over U.N. —and that behind the shadow lay the substance of Russia's threat of war. Jacob Malik and his bosses can still cause plenty of trouble at U.N. If a Russian satellite launched another aggression tomorrow, Malik could veto any Security Council action. To meet this possibility, the U.S. and other Western powers have planned with Trygve Lie to call an immediate meeting of the General Assembly if the Council is stymied by a Red veto. The Russians can also be relied on to exploit latent disagreements in the Western lineup, e.g., Britain, unlike the U.S., has recognized Red China and is logically committed to support its admission to U.N.

Last week, the U.S. and other Western delegations considered ways & means of hobbling Malik: there are a number of ways under the Charter in which the Russian could be silenced. In the end, the West decided to let Malik talk—and to talk back. The U.S. does not want Russia thrown out of U.N., but believes that the Russians should be kept accountable, through U.N., to world opinion.