UNITED NATIONS: We Are Determined

At 3 a.m. last Sunday, the telephone rang in the Forest Hills, N.Y. home of U.N. Secretary General Trygve Lie. The caller was Ambassador Ernest Gross, U.S. deputy representative to the United Nations. The U.S., said Gross, wanted Lie to call an emergency meeting of the Security Council to deal with the invasion of South Korea by Russian-backed North Korean troops. Burly Trygve Lie buckled down to action immediately, did not get back to bed that night.

By the next afternoon there were 250 spectators waiting in the long, airconditioned Security Council chamber at Lake Success—men in sport shirts, starched wives of delegates. When India’s delegate, Sir Benegal Rau, called the Council to order, Russia’s seat at the Council table was conspicuously empty. The Soviet Union was still boycotting the U.N. for its refusal to unseat China’s Nationalist delegates in favor of the Chinese Communists.

The U.S.’s Gross sharply denounced North Korea’s “wholly illegal and unprovoked attack” as a “threat to international peace and security.” On behalf of the U.S. he urged the Council to adopt a resolution demanding that the North Koreans cease fire and withdraw their troops to the 38th parallel.

When Gross had finished, small, intense Dr. John Chang, South Korean Ambassador to the U.S., was allowed to address the Council. In calm, precise English, Chang declared that the invasion was “an all-out effort. . . to bring my country under the domination of the Communist-supported puppet regime of North Korea.” Slowly and with emphasis, Chang told the tense delegates: “We are determined to resist, and will lay down our lives. This is a crime against humanity. . . We appeal to the Security Council to act forthwith . . .”

The Security Council forthwith settled down to prolonged parliamentary discussion. After four hours, the U.S. draft resolution was passed by a vote of 9-to-0, with Yugoslavia abstaining. The resolution significantly called on all member nations to “render every assistance” to U.N. in carrying out the cease-fire order.

Ambassador Chang buckled his briefcase, shook hands with the U.S. delegate and walked from the Council room, his head bent. The text of the U.N. resolution was promptly cabled to Korea, broadcast by the Voice of America, BBC and the All India Radio.

But the U.S. had devised more effective means than cable and radio to ensure that North Korea and its Communist masters would hear about U.N.’s ceasefire order.