AMERICAN NOTES: The U.N. Delusion

War was the agony from which the United Nations was born. Chartered in 1945 to keep the peace, the U.N. has become to many a cruel delusion. This has rarely been more evident than it was last week as the U.N. debated the India-Pakistan war. While thousands were being killed, the U.N. floundered through 26 hours of procedural arguments, five stillborn resolutions and shrill big power confrontations, including two Soviet vetoes. As the interpreters buzzed the long-winded, angry or pompous phrases, spectators could visualize so many bullets, so many wounds per word: simultaneous translation accompanied by simultaneous death.

Although no one in the world community doubts the contributions of the U.N.'s humanitarian agencies, the U.N. can never fulfill its peace-keeping role as long as it is merely a collection of sovereign nations subject to big power veto —which is what it obviously is destined to remain. At best, the U.N. can shorten wars and arrange precarious truces. Lately it has not even been able to accomplish that. The comforting cliche about the U.N. is that it is better than nothing, that at least it provides a place where belligerents can talk. That remains true, but the comfort is wearing thin. The trouble is that one keeps thinking of it as a separate entity with a conscience and the power to act; that fallacy keeps arousing false hopes.