The UN Founding and Founders

Most people believe that the United Nations was started with the high ideal of preventing war, but it was started as a seed that could be grown into world government.

On April 25, 1945, an extraordinary gathering of politicians and diplomats from 46 nations convened in San Francisco. Over the next two months, they completed the formal negotiations for a project that had been under way (both secretly and publicly) for several years. Their project, ostensibly, envisioned a world organization that would put an end to war. The Second World War was all but over. The German army was in retreat everywhere, and on April 27, Berlin was completely encircled. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was captured on April 28 and summarily shot and hanged in Milan. Adolf Hitler and his longtime mistress, Eva Braun, committed suicide on April 30. On May 8, Germany unconditionally surrendered and Victory in Europe, V-E Day, was declared.

Fierce fighting continued to rage in the Pacific as the “peace conference” got under way in San Francisco, but Japan was also in retreat. Victory over Japan (V-J Day) was declared on August 14, following the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9).

The war’s devastation had left much of Europe in ruins. Millions of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and civilians had been killed. Millions more were sick and wounded. There were millions of homeless refugees. Across Asia, the carnage of war had likewise cut an incredible swath of human desolation and economic destruction.

Amid the jubilant celebrations of V-E Day/V-J Day and the somber reflections on colossal war-born misery, thinking people of humane conscience everywhere were asking questions and looking for answers. How did this happen? Why all the needless death and destruction? If another war were to break out — one utilizing the terrifying new power of atomic weapons — could humanity even survive? Is there no way to put an end to war? Could something like the failed League of Nations, or some other proposal for “collective security,” have prevented World War II? Must we not strive mightily, think differently, and take extraordinary measures to avert any possibility of a World War III?

This article appears in the June 5, 2017, issue of The New American. To download the issue and continue reading this story, or to subscribe, click here.

Photo: AP Images