The History of the Cold war: A Comparative Perspective

 

Krushchev at UN-25 days in US

Khrushchev speaks at UN; Sept 1060

Castro arrives for 1960 UN

3rd world leaders arrive for 1960 UN

Khrushchev's anger at Hammarskjold and the UN. "I spit on the UN,"
Khrushchev said in reaction to the unceasingly bad news from the Congo.
"It's not our organization.... That good-for-nothing Ham is sticking his nose
in important affairs which are none of his business.... We'll really make it
hot for him."1I2 The Soviet delegate at the UN, Valerian Zorin, received
instructions to charge Hammarskjold with colluding with the Americans to
remove Lumumba from power.1I3 But Khrushchev was determined to do
more. He wanted Hammarskjold's resignation and thought it time to eliminate
the secretary-general position altogether. "On the ship's deck the thought
came to me," Khrushchev explained a month later to his colleagues in the
Kremlin, "about the structure of the United Nations.'llJ4 Believing the future
ofthe UN was at stake, he concluded that a troika ofrepresentatives from the
three worlds---capitalist, socialist, and neutral-should jointly run the organization.

. . .

Between sessions, Khrushchev met with world leaders to solicit support for
restructuring the UN. He spent a lot of time with President Nasser of the
United Arab Republic and the Ghanaian leader, Kwame Nkrumah. Both men
received Soviet military assistance and were pro-Lumumba, yet both disappointed
Khrushchev. Ultimately, with one important exception, none of the
Soviet Unions third world allies-India, Ghana, Guinea, the United Arab
Republic-supported Khrushchev's call to replace Hammarskjold with a troika.
Guinea's Sekou Toure was the most publicly critical of Hammarskjold, but like
Nkrumah, he only endorsed a compromise plan to ensure that Hammarskjold's
three deputies represented each ofthe three world groupings.

. . .

A buoyant Khrushchev flew back to Moscow on October 13 on a Soviet
plane. Although none of his African or Asian allies had endorsed his proposals
for reforming the UN, he told the Presidium two days later that he had
made the case effectively. He had no doubts about his campaign against
Hammarskjold. Indeed, he informed his colleagues that henceforth "[w]e will
not agree to any disarmament if the structure of the UN does not get
changed."128 He also brooked no questioning about Soviet policy toward
Lumumba and the Congo. "The Congo [policy] is to our advantage," said
Khrushchev. "It discredits the imperialists and discredits the UN." Ifhis colleagues
disagreed, they stayed silent.