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Message to the Congress Transmitting Report on United States Participation in the United Nations, 1966.

November 15, 1967

To the Congress of the United States:

I am pleased to transmit the annual report on United States Participation in the United Nations for the calendar year 1966.

This report documents our continuing support for the United Nations, and our efforts to help it move toward the lofty goals set forth in its Charter.

Its pages reflect encouraging progress in the effort to further international peace and and security, economic and social progress, human rights, and the rule of law among nations. They also reveal some discouraging setbacks.

One outstanding accomplishment during 1966 was the successful negotiation of the Outer Space Treaty, which bans weapons of mass destruction from space and calls for peaceful cooperation in its exploration and use. By unanimous vote, the General Assembly commended the Treaty and urged all nations to adhere to it.

Not all progress made by the U.N. was dramatic, or widely reported. Within the U.N. system--as elsewhere--disputes and crises make headlines, while the quiet works of peace go largely unnoted. Yet, day by day, in the capitals of more than a hundred nations and in thousands of villages around the world, U.N. representatives work with governments and peoples to carry on man's endless struggle against ignorance, hunger and disease. About 80 percent of the U.N.'s resources--not including those of international financing institutions--are used to promote economic and social development.

To improve these efforts, two particular U.N. activities during 1966 deserve special attention:

--The United Nations Development Program completed its first year of operation. Merging two previously separate agencies, the new organization is designed to provide a more uniform and effective U.N. program of economic assistance. It is becoming one of the key organizations for multilateral assistance.

--The General Assembly approved the charter of the U.N. Industrial Development Organization, which will help new nations create industries best suited to their development needs.

The General Assembly adopted two covenants to protect basic rights of mankind. One pertained to civil and political rights, the other to economic, social and cultural rights. Their passage completed a task which the United Nations set for itself in 1948 with its Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In addition, Ambassador Goldberg signed, on behalf of the United States, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Our signature reflects this Government's commitment to promote the cause of human rights and the end of racial discrimination.

Race repression still exists, however; and during 1966 the United Nations was intensively concerned with its manifestation in Southern Africa.

The United States proposed and supported measures designed to deal with the problem realistically, peacefully and with concern for the provisions of the United Nations Charter.

We endorsed the limited economic sanctions invoked by the Security Council against the rebel regime in Southern Rhodesia. This was an effort to deal in moderate but responsible fashion with an emerging threat to the peace in the region. It is this Government's hope that the cumulative effect of the sanctions--and of the aroused international opinion which produced them--will persuade the Rhodesian regime to return to constitutional rule.

The United States also supported responsible efforts to enable the 'people of the former Mandated Territory of South-West Africa to advance toward self-determination and freedom from race discrimination.

We did not, however, join in extreme proposals which we considered unrealistic and consequently harmful to the United Nations and the achievement of its human rights goals.

One great disappointment during the year was the failure to find a peaceful solution to the war in Vietnam.

The United States sought unsuccessfully to obtain action on the problem in the Security Council. It persistently encouraged the Secretary-General and member states to do what they could to bring about negotiations.

Those efforts have never abated. This nation continues to search for an honorable settlement in Vietnam. It continues to hope that the United Nations will make its contribution toward such a settlement.

Another setback was the failure to prevent the violence which later broke out in the Middle East.

Throughout 1966 there was evidence of increased tension in that part of the world. The Security Council met three times to consider terrorism and reprisal raids on Israel's borders. The U.S. maintained the position that the parties concerned should refrain from the use of violence, and instead use U.N. peacekeeping machinery to seek redress.

As the world was to learn later to its sorrow, counsels of moderation did not prevail.

Deep differences over the organization and financing of future peacekeeping operations continue. The constitutional and financial deadlock which had severely hampered the Organization during 1964 and 1965 no longer stood in the way of day-to-day operations, but little headway was made in settling financial problems for the future. The United States endeavored to seek agreement--and will continue to, for fundamental issues of peace are clearly involved.

On other financial matters, the U.N. made greater progress. In March, I directed the Secretary of State to help the Organization achieve the greatest possible efficiency in the planning and operation of its programs. Pointing out that the United States is the largest single contributor to U.N. programs, I said in that directive:

"If we are to be a constructive influence in helping to strengthen the international agencies so they can meet essential new needs, we must apply to them the same rigorous standards of program performance and budget review that we do to our own Federal programs."

In line with this objective, the General Assembly approved recommendations to introduce a more effective use of funds and better coordination into its operation.

Our national interest and the high ideals of our tradition combine in American support of the United Nations.

Like other U.N. members, we seek to advance our own interests in this international forum.

But using the processes of persuasion, we also seek to foster that wide community of interest among nations which is man's best hope of establishing peace with honor and progress with justice.

We shall continue that search in the years ahead.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House

November 15, 1967

Note: The report is entitled "U.S. Participation in the UN, Report by the President to the Congress for the Year 1966" (Government Printing Office, 330 pp.).

Lyndon B. Johnson, Message to the Congress Transmitting Report on United States Participation in the United Nations, 1966. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238301

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