NB: This essay is based on my reading of "The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American Power" by James Traub, plus associated knowledge.
It's a matter of general knowledge that Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations was a colossal failure, and is only worth noting as an historical matter because it was a herald of the United Nations.
The UN itself was largely the brain-child of Roosevelt, who almost literally gave his life to ensure its creation. It's painfully ironic that America's last great President (Eisenhower the soldier, Truman the bomber, Kennedy the playboy, Nixon the liar...so it goes on). It is even more incredible how ignorant the average American seems to be about the UN and how it operates. In speaking of the disastrous Somalia affair - watch of read Black Hawk Down if you wish - Clinton stated that the UN "needs to learn to say 'no'"; he knowing full well that the UN only does what the Security Council allows; knowing full well that the average American citizen would be blissfully ignorant of this, and exploiting the juxtaposition ruthlessly.
Continue reading this article here:
http://www.hungrysociety.co.uk/topics/79-society/96-understanding-the-un-1945-1960
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