"You Had Many Friends"

In the U.N. Russia's stone-faced Andrei Gromyko (serving as a stand-in for Andrei Vishinsky) delivered the set Soviet piece last week. Perhaps because the new lyrics had not yet arrived from Moscow, he played the same old scratchy tune: the U.S. had started the Korean war; the U.S. had blocked every genuine attempt to end it; U.S. armed forces are guilty of "terror."

Up to his full 6 ft. 3 in. rose U.S. Delegation Chief Henry Cabot Lodge to reply: "The U.S. Army that you have sought to smear here today is the same U.S. Army that stood beside the Russian army to defeat Naziism in World War II . . . The U.S. Army was good enough for you in 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945. It has not changed. It would be good enough for you now if your government's position had not so tragically changed."

Lodge continued, speaking straight to Moscow: "You had many friends but you have lost a good deal of that friendship and respect . . . You have lost them because of the fear which seems to motivate everyone in an official position in your country. This fear is not a rational fear of attack from the outside . . . It must be a fear of their own people, a fear that stems from the tyranny which they impose on the Soviet people. It is this fear which motivates Soviet imperialism . . ."

The audience roared their applause until General Assembly President Lester Pearson cracked his gavel. Before the U.N. forum, the U.S. had often made its case with telling legal corrections; seldom had its case been made with such simple, quotable eloquence.

Lodge continued: ". . . Last week the Soviet representative [Vishinsky] said to me, 'You are going to lose Asia anyway.' That astounding remark made me realize how far apart his view of humanity is from mine. The U.S. is not trying to get Asia. We have never thought of Asia as some sort of object inhabited by slaves which was to be won or lost by outsiders."

Also on last week's U.N. agenda: choosing a successor to U.N. Secretary Trygve Lie, who is resigning after seven years because of Russian disfavor. His successor must 1) get the votes of at least seven of the eleven Security Council members; 2) avoid a veto by one of the permanent Big Five (U.S., Britain, France, China, Russia); 3) secure ratification by two-thirds of the General Assembly.

The U.S. had nominated the Philippines' Carlos Romulo, who won only five votes (U.S., China, Colombia, Greece, Pakistan), two less than needed, and was counted out. Russia named Polish Foreign Minister Stanislaw Skrzeszewski, who got only one vote (Russia). Denmark proposed Canada's Lester Pearson, and many believed that he would not be actively opposed by Russia. Pearson overcame the first obstacle with nine votes (U.S., Britain, France, China, Chile, Denmark, Pakistan, Colombia, Greece), but fell before the second, a Soviet veto (its 56th in the Security Council). The ballots, which are supposed to be secret but aren't, were then ceremoniously burned in a tin wastebasket. One possibility: if the Security Council cannot find anyone acceptable to Russia, it may decide to stick with Lie.

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