Evening star., 1961-03-22
Menocinq the World

Adlat Stevenson, our chief delegate
to the United Nations, has given a
relatively brief but strong answer to the
Kremlin's latest oratorical assault-as
carried out by Foreign Minister Gromyko
at yesterdays meeting Of the General
Assembly the basic structure, the
very heart, of the world organization.
This assault now has become quite
hackneyed, but it remains altogether
threatful. In terms Of specific Soviet
demandS-aS restated by Mr.. Gromyko
with studied and typically grim -visaged
viciousneSS-it is aimed at forcing the
U. N. out Of the Congo within a months
time. It is aimed also at two additional
objectiveS: ~ The immediate with
drawal Of all Belgian civilian and
military advisers from every Congolese
area. And (2) the custer, forthwith,
Of Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold
and his replacement by q three-man
directorate made up of "neutralist,"
9 WeSterner and a Communists
triumvirate whose built-in veto powers
would amount to an administrative
monstroSity entirely capable Of reducing
both the Security Council and the
General Assembly to complete paralysis
and impotency in times Of crisis.
Ambassador Stevenson has responded
to all this with admirably blunt
and forceful language. Accusing the
Kremlin of injecting into the current
debate "the most destructive spirit of
the cold war;" he has laShed out at Mr..
Gromyko'S remarks as wild, irreSpon-
sible and absurd" and he has interpreted
them as evidence that the Soviet Union
does not really want the U. N. to sue
coed in the Congo cas- an effective inStru-
ment for peace and progress" Instead,
as he has rightly charged, all signs
indicate that the Khrushchev regime
is relentlessly intent upon promoting
CongoleSe chaos in connection with q
ceaseless drive to subvert Africa and
thus further the cause Of Communist
g1obal domination. Neither the United
States, of course, nor any other free
nation, can afford to view such q
prospect with complacency or indif-
ference. Far from 1t. As Secretary Of
State RuSk has just declared in Cali
fornia:
Recent attacks upon the Secretary
General and proposals to substitute q
triumvirate for q single executive must be
looked upon as an attempt to reduce the
United Nations to ineffectiveness. The
United States cannot accept so serious an
undermining Of the agreements and purposes
OF the 10. NJ Charter. :. But If it 1.-THE
y. M is important to us, so it is to the
generality of its membership who must look
to it for their safety and for attention to
their interests in q turbulent world. The
United Nations must accomplish its task In
the Congo both because Of the Congo and
because it must ready itself for other, as yet
unidentified crises in the years ahead where
effective international action may be the
difference between war and peace.
AS Of this time certainly, the
Kremlin's position is quite at variance
with the American one outlined by MIR.
Rusk, and the gulf between the two has
an Importance that can hardly be
exaggerated Indeed, unless or until
it is bridged Ia possibility that seems
remote at the moment), 1t win con-
stitute for our own country, for Russia
and for the world at large a factor of
constant and major menace.