United Nations: War of Words

The Congo itself was quiet—a minimum of killings, no invasions, no kidnapings. The noise was mostly to be heard 6,400 miles away in Manhattan, where Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko put on a show in the U.N. Assembly that went pretty far even for Gromyko.

He demanded that the U.N. get out of the Congo within 30 days. Before they left, he urged the U.N. troops to arrest Katanga President Moise Tshombe and Congolese Army General Joseph Mobutu.

Then he wanted the Assembly to recognize the “legitimate government” of Antoine Gizenga, Red-backed boss of Eastern Province. This was not all. Gromyko went on to denounce Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold as a “murderer” and a “stooge” who must be fired forthwith.

Most U.N. delegates listened in silence as the big nations lobbed angry rhetoric back and forth. But the U.S.’s Adlai Stevenson plainly had widespread support when he characterized Gromyko’s speech as “in the worst and most destructive traditions of the cold war.” As for Hammarskjold. said Stevenson, the U.S. would support him “with all our strength.” Through it all, Hammarskjold himself sat impassively, looking like a man who had other problems to worry about. He had. One of them is the future of the U.N. operations boss in the Congo. Indian Diplomat Rajeshwar Dayal, whose inflexible policies and personal prejudices have won him the enmity of every Congolese leader from President Joseph Kasavubu on down. When Dayal was called back to New York for “consultation” fortnight ago, most Congolese happily assumed that Hammarskjold was planning to replace him. But last week Hammarskjold ordered Dayal back to the Congo. The Secretary-General could scarcely repudiate his Senior Indian aide at the very moment that India, reversing its previous policy, had just sent an entire 4,700-man brigade to beef up the U.N.’s dwindling Congo forces.