Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, General; the United Nations, Volume I

Editorial Note

President Harry S. Truman on March 19, 1946, transmitted to the Congress of the United States the Report of the United States Delegation to the First Part of the First Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, London, England, January 10–February 14, 1946, which had been submitted to the President by the Secretary of State, James F. Byrnes, on March 1. In his letter of transmittal to the Congress President Truman wrote in part:

“The participation of the American representatives in the actual establishment of the institutions provided in the Charter of the United Nations, and in the initial work of the General Assembly regarding the urgent problems confronting the 51 Members of the United Nations today is vital to all Americans.

“The United States supports the Charter. The United States supports the fullest implementation of the principles of the Charter. The United States seeks to achieve the purposes of the Charter. And the United States seeks to perfect the Charter as experience lights the way.”

This presidential statement of the intent of United States foreign policy and diplomacy in the new dimension of international relations involving the United Nations was one of several notable expressions of official United States views on general aspects of United States–United Nations relations during 1946. The following statements, messages and addresses may also be noted:

(1) Message from the Secretary of State to the Conference on Lecturers on International Affairs sponsored by the American Platform Guild and meeting at the Department of State on January 3, 1946, and released to the press January 3 (Department of State Bulletin, January 6 and 13, 1946, page 6; hereafter cited as the Bulletin);

(2) Excerpt from the President’s Message to the Congress on the State of the Union, dated January 14, 1946, and released to the press on the same date (Bulletin, February 3, 1946, pages 135 ff.);

(3) Address by the Secretary of State to the General Assembly, delivered on January 14, 1946, and released to the press on the same date (Bulletin, January 27, 1946, pages 87 ff.);

(4) Statement by Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., United States Representative at the United Nations, to the Security Council on the occasion of the first meeting of the Security Council, London, January 17, 1946 (United Nations, Official Records of the Security Council, First Tear, First Series, No. 1, pages 7–8);

(5) Address by the Secretary of State to the Overseas Press Club in New York City, delivered on February 28, 1946, and released to the press on the same date (Bulletin, March 10, 1946, pages 355 ff.);

(6) Letter from the Secretary of State to the President, transmitting the Report of the United States Delegation to the General Assembly (Bulletin, March 31, 1946, pages 531 ff.). The complete report was printed as The United States and the United Nations, Department of State publication 2484, Conference Series 82 (Government Printing Office, 1946);

(7) Statement by the Honorable Cordell Hull, former Secretary of State, “in welcoming the United Nations Organization as its temporary headquarters are being established in New York. …”, released to the press on March 11, 1946 (The New York Times, March 12, 1946, page 5);

(8) Statements by the Secretary of State on March 18 and March 20, 1946, on the arrival in the United States and at Washington, D.C., of Mr. Trygve Lie, Secretary-General of the United Nations (Bulletin, March 31, 1946, page 529);

(9) Address by the Secretary of State delivered before the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in New York City on March 16, 1946, and released to the press on the same date (Bulletin, March 24, 1946, pages 481 ff.):

(10) Letter from the President to the Congress, transmitting the Report of the United States Delegation to the General Assembly, March 19, 1946 (Bulletin, March 31, 1946, page 530);

(11) Messages from the President of the United States and the Secretary of State to the opening meeting of the Security Council in New York City on March 25, 1946, and released to the press on the same date (Bulletin, April 7, 1946, pages 567 and 568);

(12) Letter from the Secretary of State to Mr. Frederic R. Coudert, President of the American Society of International Law, April 20, 1946 (Bulletin, May 5, 1946, pages 758 and 759);

(13) Address by the Appointed United States Representative at the United Nations, Senator Warren R. Austin, delivered before the Foreign Policy Association, New York City, on June 26, 1946, on the first anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter at San Francisco, and released to the press on the same date (Bulletin, July 7, 1946, pages 16 ff.);

(14) Address by President Truman to the General Assembly, delivered at the opening session of the Second Part of the First Session of the General Assembly in New York City on October 23, 1946, and released to the press by the White House on the same date (Bulletin, November 3, 1946, page 808).