The 18th Session

A fair wind snapped the flags of 111 countries into a quiver of color as the United Nations General Assembly began its 18th session last week. To most of the delegates, it was more than a warm, late-summer breeze off Manhattan's East River. It was a wind of hope --however mild. Even the Soviet Union's dour Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko remarked it. Last year his opening speech took the form of a tirade against U.S. policy toward Cuba, but now Gromyko was all coexistence and detente--"the good wind whose breath is today felt by the nations."

When it came to proposals, all the Soviet delegate had to offer this time was the old idea of a summit conference on disarmament. This was moderate enough to bring applause from U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson. Gromyko reciprocated with deadpan applause for John Kennedy's address the next day. But to most of the delegates it seemed an auspicious beginning.

A Son of Bolivar. First order of business was the election of Venezuela's Ambassador Carlos Sosa Rodriguez, 51, to the presidency of the Assembly. Approved by a vote of 99 nations (eleven abstained and Nepal arrived too late to cast a ballot), the trim, businesslike lawyer-accountant accepted the gavel from Pakistan's bearded Zafrulla Khan. Then, in Spanish (he is also fluent in French and English), Sosa Rodriguez introduced himself as "a son of the native land of Simon Bolivar."

Sosa Rodriguez is just that. A great-great-granduncle on his father's side signed Venezuela's preliminary declaration of independence in 1810. Sosa Rodriguez was ambassador in London when Marcos Perez Jimenez made himself President in 1952. He went into self-exile, returned when Dictator Perez Jimenez was overthrown, and since 1958 has been Venezuela's permanent representative to the U.N.

Much of the 82-item agenda consists of housekeeping chores, budget reports, filling administrative vacancies, etc., but many perennially sticky matters lie ahead. African nations will continue to press for punitive action against Portugal (for its policies in Angola and Mozambique) and South Africa (for apartheid). In fact, before the week was out, more than half of the Assembly--the Afro-Asian bloc plus the Communist nations--walked out when South Africa argued against putting apartheid on the agenda.

Permanent Peace Keepers? More trouble could arise from the investigation, demanded by some 20 members led by Buddhist Ceylon, into South Viet Nam's treatment of Buddhists; and Indonesia promises a hot fight against Malaysia's taking over the seat formerly occupied by Malaya. The military operation in the Congo will again trigger a bitter controversy. But for all the noise ahead, Canada's Prime Minister Lester Pearson felt the 18th to be "the Assembly of opportunity." Pearson backed Secretary-General U Thant's request for a permanent peace-keeping force composed of specially trained units from contributing nations. "The Scandinavian member states have shown the way," said Pear son, adding that a similar Canadian force was now available.

Pearson also called for the enlargement of the Security Council. Though he offered no solution to the impasse caused by the Security Council veto power, he felt that a "properly balanced composition" could only be an improvement. Canada's Pearson was striking at inequalities and inefficiencies in a body that was designed to fulfill a "high executive function." The United Nations' 32 African nations (excluding South Africa) now comprise 29% of the organization's membership, yet have no permanent member on the Security Council.

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