Editorial Note
After continuing and close consultation with other delegations, agreement was reached on a joint draft at a meeting on the evening of October 3, between Mr. Dulles and advisers and representatives of Canada, France, Philippines, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay, all of whom agreed to be cosponsors of the resolution with the United States. Of the changes effected as a result of the discussions, the most important occurred in Part C: a panel of military experts was substituted for a United Nations military adviser (section 9); and section 10 was detached to form a new Part D. In Part A (section 1), the words “because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members” were added after the words “Resolves that if the Security Council.…” After some further discussion, principally between the United States and British Delegations, the joint draft resolution (which became known as the Seven-Power resolution) was filed with the United Nations Secretariat on October 7 (U.N. Doc. A/C.1/576); for text, see GA (V), Annexes, volume II, fascicule 68, pages 4–6. This ended the phase of strictly United States diplomatic initiative.
The First Committee became seized of the matter on October 9 and remained so through October 21. At the same time, as part of the same agenda item, the First Committee considered new resolutions offered by the Soviet Union, and Syria and Iraq, respectively, as well as amendments to the joint Seven-Power draft resolution. For the proceedings of the First Committee at this time, see GA (V), First Committee, pages 63 ff. For the text of the draft resolution that emerged from these deliberations, a three-part resolution consisting [Page 360] of the “Uniting for Peace” resolution (Part A), a Soviet resolution (Part B), and the Iraqi-Syrian resolution (Part C), see GA (V), Annexes, volume II, fascicule 68, pages 18–21.
All resolutions experienced some revision in committee. Those revisions relating to the Seven-Power resolution occurred in two phases. On October 13 the co-sponsors themselves offered a revised draft based on general committee discussion up to that point (U.N. Doc. A/C.1/576/Rev. 1, Oct. 13). The final draft accepted by the Committee on October 19 reflected still further changes. Together, the most important included additions to the preamble; revisions in Part A, providing that the General Assembly would make recommendations for the use of armed force only in cases of actual breaches of the peace or acts of aggression (and not on threats to the peace) and providing further that a majority of the Members of the United Nations could call an emergency special session of the General Assembly (as well as the Security Council on the vote of any seven members); revisions in Parts B and D, naming specifically the membership of the Peace Observation Committee and the Collective Measures Committee; and the inclusion of a new Part E which incorporated a proposal sponsored by Chile. For texts of all resolutions and amendments, see GA (V), Annexes, volume II, fascicule 68; see also ibid., First Committee, pages 161 (paragraph 33) and 164 (paragraph 75). A legislative commentary is found also in fascicule 68, in the Report of the First Committee.
The following statements by Mr. Dulles are found in the proceedings of the First Committee (GA (V), First Committee): remarks introducing the joint draft resolution on behalf of the seven sponsoring powers (pages 63–65); statements regarding the authority of the General Assembly to recommend the use of armed forces (pages 117–118); explanation of changes in Part A (pages 124–125); statement regarding the naming of the five permanent members of the Security Council to the Peace Observation Commission (pages 138, 159); observations on the Soviet Union resolution regarding Article 43 forces (page 163); remarks concerning the joint Iraqi-Syrian resolution (pages 167–168).
Following general discussion of the Report of the First Committee, November 1 and 2, the General Assembly on November 3 adopted the composite resolution, after rejecting various Soviet amendments to Resolution A (Uniting for Peace) and voting individually for the several parts of that resolution. For the proceedings of the General Assembly, see GA (V), Plenary, volume I, pages 292 ff. For official text of Resolution 377 (V), see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifth Session, Resolutions, pages 10–12.
[Page 361]There follow six documents which are illustrative of the response of United States diplomacy to certain developments during the First Committee phase of the legislative history of the resolution: the first four documents relate to Resolution A (Uniting for Peace), the fifth to Resolution B (the Soviet resolution), the sixth to Resolution C (the joint Iraqi-Syrian resolution).