One Hundred Red Vetoes

While the other four permanent members of the Security Council--Britain, France, Nationalist China and the U.S.--have cast a total of only seven vetoes, Russia has resorted to the veto 99 times. Among other things, the Reds blocked moves to investigate the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948, to end the Berlin blockade, to censure bloody Soviet suppression of the 1956 Hungarian revolt. Four times Russia killed resolutions concerning disarmament, and 51 times it vetoed U.N. membership for clearly qualified nations. Last week Russia cast veto No. 100, merely to curry favor with India.

The issue involved the acrid quarrel between India and Pakistan over the disputed Himalayan province of Kashmir, where a U.N. cease-fire line keeps an uneasy truce between the two countries. India has ignored U.N. resolutions calling for a self-determination plebiscite in Kashmir because it fears that the predominantly Moslem province would opt to go with Moslem Pakistan. When Ireland (with U.S. backing) introduced another mild resolution in the Security Council to bring the two countries together in negotiations, the measure was promptly killed by the Russians, with whom India is currently dickering for two squadrons of MIG-21 jet fighter planes.

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