Word: thant
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Familiar Figure. When the Israelis publicly indicate a willingness to sit down at the negotiating table. United Nations Secretary-General U Thant will summon Mediator Gunnar Jarring from his regular post as Swedish Ambassador to Moscow. Since the Arabs refuse to meet directly with Israel, Jarring is likely to shuttle between delegations. The site of the talks has not been settled. The Israelis would prefer Rome or Cyprus in order to be closer to Jerusalem for instructions. But Jarring will probably decide on New York. That could be an advantage: the farther from home all parties are, the slower...
...probably too late for the 1970 holiday season, but other treats could lie in store if leaders elsewhere were to pick up the idea: The Compleat Kosygin, The Long-Playing U Thant, Castro to Cut Cane By, Thieu for Tea, The Little Red Album of Chairman Mao's Thoughts, The Splendacious Sciolisms of Spiro (in stereo...
AFTER a quarter-century, the U.N. survives, but the question remains of how much it accomplishes beyond that. Secretary-General U Thant's own assessment is that "the U.N. has done well, but it has not done well enough." Certainly it is no longer a defense of the U.N.'s record merely to recall Adlai Stevenson's remark that if the U.N. were to disappear, something very much like it would have to be created. One of its most useful functions remains as a place for hostile big powers to meet and, if they so desire...
...Cyprus and the Congo have all been U.N. successes. In the Middle East, a U.S.-backed General Assembly resolution successfully cooled the Suez crisis of 1956, but that plus was wiped out in 1967. When Cairo demanded that the U.N. pull out its 3,400-man Emergency Force, U Thant swiftly complied rather than try to stall for time. It was one of the more spectacular misjudgments of Thant's flaccid, nine-year stewardship. As a result, Egypt began mobilizing near Israel's borders, and the Six-Day War was on. In the Soviet invasions of Hungary...
...greatest debacle was awaiting him in June 1967, when Nasser rashly took Syria's word that Israel was preparing an attack and ordered U.N. peacekeeping forces out of the Gaza Strip. He later admitted that he had not expected Secretary-General U Thant to comply. To his surprise, Thant rushed the U.N. troops out, leaving an obvious danger zone unguarded. In the face of Egyptian mobilization, the Israelis launched a devastating pre-emptive attack on Egypt. Drubbed in the Six-Day War, Nasser resigned, knowing that the Arab masses would plead for him to return. He did, a scant...