judgmentor prejudiceon
foreign policy decisions.
She might also wonder
whetherChiangKei-sheik
was the only Chinese
leaderfightingtheJapan-
ese invader. How about
Mao Zedong? Roosevelt
waskeento include Brazil.
Churchillwasadamanton
gettingFrancein, though
it wasyet to be liberated,
and Roosevelt had to
agree.However,theRus-
sianleaderJosephStalin
formallyagreedto includ-
ing Franceonlyat the Yalta
Conference in February
1945,five monthsafterthe
liberation of France in Au-
gust1944.If Brazilis in,
therewillbe six permanent
members,andin orderto
givenotionalmajorityto
thenon-permanent, there
willhaveto be sevenof
them,givinga totalof 13, a
number that Roosevelt
disliked.
It wasRoosevelt’sidea
to givepermanentmem-
bershipto the “fourpolice-
men”(theU.S.,theSoviet
Union, the U.K. and
China) whowould keep
peacein the world.(Weare
talking of a timebefore
Roosevelt had accepted
France.)Rooseveltshared
thisideawithSovietFor-
eignMinisterVyacheslav
Molotovin 1942.Thelat-
ter added one more
thought:thefour“police-
men” alone should hold
weapons. Roosevelt,
agreedas canbe seenfrom
AnthonyEden’sbookThe
Reckoning where
Roosevelt is quoted as say-
ing thatthe smallerpowers“should havenothingmore
dangerousthanrifles”.
Thefirst outlineof a
neworganisationwaspre-
pared by Boris Stein,a So-
viet diplomat, after the
1943 TehranConference
attended by Roosevelt,
Churchill and Stalin,
knownas the BigThree.
Thefirst U.S.draftfol-
lowed the Stein draft.
There was disagreement
about the name of the
post-war organisation.
Rooseveltwantedto retain
the name“TheUnitedNa-
tions”,representing the Al-
lies.Stalinopposed usinga
wartime name. He pro-
posed “World Union”or
“International Security
Organisation”. Churchill
supportedRoosevelt,andStalinyielded. The U.N.
wasnot conceivedas a uni-
versal organisation. Nor
diddecolonisationfigure
amongits goals.TheU.N.
Charterhasthreearticles
(53,77 and107)thatrefer
to possible action against
“enemy states”despitethe
WorldSummitof Decem-
ber 2005decidingto “work
towardsdeletingthe refer-
ences”,as theauthor puts
it. The first twowords,
“worktowards”,are typical
U.N.language.
The“veto” powerheld
by the P5 camein for much
discussion.TheBigThree
wereagreedon theneed
fortheveto butworried
aboutcriticismfromother
member states.Confident
of theirabilityto havema-JUNE1945:U.S.PresidentHarryS. Trumanspeakingat the closingsessionof the United
NationsSanFranciscoConferencewherethe U.N. Charterwasfinalised.THEHINDUARCHIVES