UN General Assembly
1961

128. With your permission, Mr. President, I would also like to touch briefly on the reorganization of the United Nations Secretariat. Representatives of a number of countries who have spoken before me have, in referring to the death of Mr. Dag Hammarskjold, tried to dramatize the situation and represent the state of affairs that has arisen as a "United Nations crisis". Moreover, the views expressed by many United States newspapers are biased and distort the meaning of the Soviet Union's proposals on this subject. For instance, The New York Times of 1 October 1961 wrote in a leading article that the key to the struggle over the Soviet Proposals lay in Russia's demand for the replacement of the late Secretary-General by a committee in which each member would have a veto. We consider that such statements, whether in the Press or inside the United Nations are deliberately inspired and have a very specific purpose. That purpose is to distort the real attitude of the socialist States and to whitewash those countries that are now trying in every way possible to maintain the situation that has hitherto prevailed in which the executive authority of the United Nations protects the selfish interests of one group of Western Powers and not the general interests of the whole Organization—the interests of maintaining peace and developing international collaboration.