United Nations Peace on the March

It began as a monument to postwar idealism, but for more than a decade the United Nations has been repeatedly condemned as a cockpit of Third World radicalism and bureaucratic waste. Few critics have been more severe than the U.S., which for the past three years has put a squeeze on the 159-member organization by withholding most of its $215 million annual dues as part of a campaign to force reform. Thus the turnaround could hardly have been more dramatic last week, when the Reagan Administration reversed the policy that had made it the world organization's biggest debtor. "The U.N. is directly serving long-term objectives of this Administration to end regional conflicts and advance peace and freedom around the world," declared White House Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, who added, "We are committed to full funding."

Fitzwater announced that the U.S. would begin paying back $540 million in overdue U.N. assessments. A check for $15.2 million was delivered last week, and the State Department has been ordered to come up with a plan for repaying the remainder by 1991.

The U.S. change of heart came just in time for the beleaguered organization on Manhattan's East River. The U.S. is supposed to pay 25% of the U.N.'s general operating revenues. Since Washington began withholding funds, the organization has been dangerously strapped for cash. In July U.N. Secretary- General Javier Perez de Cuellar met with Ronald Reagan to explain that the U.N. could run out of money as early as November.

The Administration's endorsement, which came only days before this week's opening of the 43rd annual U.N. General Assembly session, was viewed cynically in some circles. President Reagan is slated to make his final address to the General Assembly on Sept. 26; it was quickly noted that handing over large amounts of cash will undoubtedly warm his reception. The Administration's new embrace of the U.N., however, was hardly unqualified. Fitzwater said that reform of the organization is "incomplete," before adding that "the progress is striking."

The U.S. financial shift is the capstone of several U.N. triumphs and accomplishments. In the past eight months, a number of the world's more intractable conflicts have begun to yield to mediation, and though the U.N. cannot claim to be the sole cause of the breakthroughs, its efforts have played an important role. Among the high points:

-- In April, the Soviet Union, negotiating under U.N. auspices, agreed on a ! timetable for withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan. The decision, which will bring all the soldiers home by early 1989, climaxed six years of U.N.-sponsored talks between the Soviet-sponsored Afghan government and Pakistan, chief supporter of Afghanistan's mujahedin rebels.

-- In July, Iran abruptly announced that it would accept U.N. Resolution 598 calling for a cease-fire in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. Last month some 350 U.N. soldiers landed in both countries to observe the cease-fire.

-- In August, South Africa, Angola and Cuba agreed to a cease-fire in Angola and Namibia. Though their talks have been mediated by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chester Crocker, the tentative peace plan calls for implementation of U.N. Resolution 435, with the world body supervising elections that would lead to Namibian independence.