Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere, Volume II

320/10–1150: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the United States Representative at the United Nations (Austin)

secret

Washington, October 14, 1950—1 p. m.

Gadel 45. Re Delga 109 and 105 of Oct 11 Dept views re proposed Sov resolutions set forth in reftels¹ as follows:

1. Objective in dealing with proposed Sov res. Delga 109 shld be to amend Sov. res in such manner that Soviets cannot support amended res without likewise approving res on united action for peace. Amendments shld if possible have broad support among sponsors our res and other friendly dels. Dept suggests fol text might accomplish above objective:

“The General Assembly recommends to the Security Council that it should take the necessary steps to ensure the taking of the action provided under the Charter in case any threat to the peace or act of aggression is declared and to secure the peaceful settlement of disputes or situations likely to threaten the maintenance of international peace and security, and again recommends to the permanent members of the Security Council that they broaden progressively their cooperation and exercise restraint in the use of the veto in order to make the Security Council a more effective instrument for maintaining peace, as called for by the General Assembly resolution of December 1, 1949, A 1167, and that they implement the recommendations of the GA concerning voting in the Security Council as set forth in the GA res of Apr 20, 1949, S/1412.

“That it should decide on measures to secure the rapid application of Articles 43, 45, 46, and 47 of the Charter of the UN relating to the placing of armed forces at the disposal of the SC by the states members of the UN and the effective operation of the SC, as recommended in the GA res. of Dec. 14, 1946 and that as a first step it should act on the report of the Military Staff Committee submitted to the UN SC on Apr 30, 1947, entitled ‘General Principles Governing the Organization of the Armed Forces Made Available to the SC by Member nations of the UN’ and should thereafter prepare a draft standard form of agreement for use in the implementation of Article. 43.”

2. Dept believes proposed Sov res. Delga 105 is intended as trap to nullify joint draft res.² Therefore preferred course wld be to vote it down. Dept. recognizes that this course may not be feasible since res to great extent merely repeats Charter language. Therefore Sov res might be amended to insure that nothing in Sov res will have effect of delaying or interfering with (a) the setting up of machinery provided in joint res on uniting for peace; (b) the utilization of such machinery in any particular situation.

Acheson

1. For texts of the two Soviet draft resolutions under reference, see GA (V), First Committee, pp. 161 (paragraph 33) and 164 (paragraph 75). USUN reported in Delga 105 the text of the former and the latter in Delga 109. The last-named resolution was the Soviet resolution subsequently adopted (after revision) by the General Assembly as Resolution B of the composite resolution on United Action for Peace on November 3; the other was rejected by the First Committee and never went to the General Assembly.
2. This (subsequently) rejected Soviet resolution was based on Article 106 of the Charter of the United Nations, which stipulated that the permanent members of the Security Council should consult with one another with a view to joint action for the maintenance of international peace and security, pending the coming into force of such special agreements as were referred to in Article 43 (that is, regarding United Nations armed forces).