Who Must Obey?

"Hungary has become one big cemetery. The acts perpetrated by the army of the Soviet Union in Hungary beggar description . . . Men, women and children are led forcibly outside Hungarian territory. Executions have felled hundreds every day. And all this is being done despite indignant humanity which turns to the U.N. ... as the only means of putting this slaughter, this butchery, to an end."

With this emotion-packed preface Cuban Delegate Emilio Nunez-Portuondo last week introduced into the U.N. General Assembly a resolution which, besides reiterating the U.N.'s previous demand for withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary, called upon the Russians "to cease the deportation of Hungarian citizens and to return promptly to their homes those who have been deported."

"A Fetid Odor." Watered down as it was--in its original form it had bluntly accused the U.S.S.R. of genocide--the Cuban resolution infuriated the Soviets and their Hungarian stooges. Hungary's Deputy Foreign Minister Endre Sik, by his own admission a former Soviet citizen, flatly denied that any deportations were taking place and contended that "this declaration by our government makes it clear that there is nothing for the General Assembly to discuss." Shaggy-haired Soviet Foreign Minister Dmitry Shepilov snarled that the Cuban resolution "has about it the fetid odor of provocation" and blamed the trouble in Hungary on "reactionary fascist elements" spurred on by "the American intelligence."

Though the Cuban resolution passed by a vote of 55 to 10, 14 nations abstained. Among them: India. Indonesia and every Middle Eastern country save Iran and Iraq. Despite this lingering trace of doublethink, however, there were encouraging signs that bit by bit the Asian and African nations were coming to recognize that Russian imperialism was just as immoral as any other kind. Three weeks ago India's U.N. Delegate Krishna Menon had outraged many, including his own countrymen (see below), by voting against a resolution which called upon Hungary to admit U.N. observers. Last week, under pressure from New Delhi, hot-eyed Krishna Menon did an about-face and, together with the Ceylonese and Indonesian delegates, sponsored a resolution urging Hungary to comply with the very demand India had originally refused to support.

Everyone or No One. Where the harsher Cuban resolution had won the support of only four Asian "neutrals"--Burma, Cambodia. Ceylon and Laos--every Asian member of the U.N. and more than half of its twelve Arab members lined up against the U.S.S.R. to pass the Menon resolution by a vote of 57 to 8. Rarely in its battle to win the good opinion of humanity had Russia suffered a more significant defeat.

Even so, there was little faith that the Russians would comply with the U.N.'s demands, and the utility of a U.N. which could win nothing but moral victories over the U.S.S.R. was increasingly in doubt. Bitterly French Foreign Minister Christian Pineau told the General Assembly: "The U.N. must decide to impose its decisions on everyone or resign itself to impose them on no one."

Entering Wedge. Pineau's argument would have been more impressive had it been disinterested. What was exercising the French Foreign Minister, as he freely admitted, was the fact that the U.N., unable to act against Russia, was clamping down hard on Britain and France. Less than 24 hours before Pineau spoke, 190 Norwegian riflemen of the United Nations Emergency Force entered Port Said amidst screams of welcome from a wild-eyed Egyptian mob. The Norwegians were the thin end of a wedge with which U.N. Secretary Dag Hammarskjold intended to winkle the reluctant British and French out of Egypt.

The Old One-Two. Within hours after he got back to New York from Cairo early last week, Hammarskjold began to make it clear that, according to his lights, the prime U.N. objective in the Middle East was to restore the situation that existed before the fighting started in Egypt. Reporting to the U.N. Advisory Committee on his conversations with Nasser, the quiet Swede indicated that he had freely accepted two fundamental Egyptian positions: 1) UNEF must withdraw from the Suez Canal Zone as soon as British and French troops leave Egypt; 2) repairs to the canal must await the Anglo-French withdrawal.

While Egypt's enemies were still absorbing this shock, the Secretary-General delivered the second half of his one-two punch. In notes to the governments of Britain, France and Israel, Hammarskjold demanded to know what their plans were for withdrawing their forces from Egypt.

The replies to Hammarskjold's questions were lengthy and unreassuring. The chief fact which emerged from them was that none of the three invading powers planned to get out of Egypt until they had secured at least some of their war aims.

The British and French notes amounted to a declaration that Anglo-French forces would remain in Port Said until Egypt had been pressured into surrendering unilateral control of the Suez Canal. The Israeli government would surrender Sinai only after the U.N. found some way "to ensure Israel's security against the recurrence of the threat ... of attack" by the Arab nations.

Crumbling Defiance. In the U.N.'s East River headquarters, this defiance of the U.N.'s will sparked an outburst of indignation. With Krishna Menon marching at their head, 21 Asian and African nations quickly introduced a resolution which called upon Britain, France and Israel to "comply forthwith" with the General Assembly's demand for immediate withdrawal from Egypt, and expressed "grave concern" that they had not already done so.

Under this assault, British defiance soon began to crumble. In open General Assembly debate, Foreign Minister Selwyn Lloyd continued to hew to the established British line: Britain would withdraw her forces "as soon as the U.N. force is in a position to assume effectively the tasks assigned to it." Privately, however, Lloyd began explaining to his U.N. colleagues that Britain was in fact determined to get out of Egypt as soon as possible and that continuing U.N. pressure for "immediate" withdrawal would only serve to stir up British national pride to such an extent that the Eden government might be forced to delay matters in order to save its skin. And in a final conciliatory burst, Britain sought to placate the Assembly by announcing that withdrawal of one battalion from Port Said would begin before the week was out. The Israelis, in an equally sudden access of amenability, announced that they had withdrawn two brigades--about 6,000 men--from the Sinai peninsula.

Forthwith Is Forthwith. Unmoved, the Asian nations, with the harsh assistance of Russia's Dmitry Shepilov, continued to press for passage of a resolution reproaching Egypt's three invaders. As a gracious gesture to the harried British, Krishna Menon came up with a new draft which noted the Anglo-French stalling with "regret" rather than "grave concern." The U.S.'s Henry Cabot Lodge helpfully assured the British that the word "forthwith" did not imply that all Anglo-French forces must leave Egypt immediately. "If forthwith does not mean forthwith," complained Selwyn Lloyd with understandable petulance, "then the resolution should not say what it does not mean."

Old friends and allies did their best to save Britain this final pommeling. Canada's Lester Pearson, who sponsored the resolution setting up UNEF, assured the Assembly that the Menon resolution was "unnecessary." The U.S. delegation, torn between its desire not to damage the Atlantic alliance further and its anxiety to retain new-found U.S. prestige in Asia and Africa, wavered. Finally, in the third U.S. change of heart in two days, Cabot Lodge lukewarmly but conclusively lined the U.S. up behind Menon.

With the U.S. decision, what little chance there had been of defeating the Menon resolution vanished. By a vote of 63 to 5, with ten abstentions, the resolution passed. A few minutes later the Assembly, by an even more one-sided vote (65 to 0 with nine abstentions), authorized Hammarskjold to continue the negotiations he had begun with Dutch and Danish firms for clearance of the Suez Canal. With this vote went all Anglo-French hopes of getting the canal open on their own terms.

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