United Nations: The Thunderous Silence

• Share

In return for tacit pledges of "voluntary contributions" to a special U.N. peace-keeping fund, the U.S. last August dropped its insistence that Russia, France and ten other nations be denied a vote in the General Assembly until they paid up their back assessments. The compromise was cheered by all members, for it ended a year-long crisis that had paralyzed the Assembly. So far, however, only the U.S. has lived up to the bargain. Every suggestion that Russia and France come through with their voluntary payments, Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg told the Assembly last week, has been greeted with "thunderous silence."

Russia is even dragging its feet on the organization of future peace-keeping missions. Soviet Ambassador Nikolai Fedorenko last week rejected a compromise proposal by eight small nations that would allow the Security Council's five permanent members—the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and Nationalist China—to "opt out" of paying for any peace-keeping missions they opposed rather than block the missions entirely.

None of which was helping the U.N. pay its bills. As of last week, the world organization had only $30 million in liquid assets, a monthly payroll of $3,000,000 for its Secretariat, and debts totaling $80 million.