THE ""OTHER"" STATE DEPARTMENT: The United States Mission to the United Nations--Its Role in the Making of Foreign Policy

by Arnold Beichman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1968

Who makes American foreign policy? Beichman argues that the freewheeling chiefs of the United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN) have made USUN a major factor in decision-making: ""It might even be argued and demonstrated that USUN has made (or unmade) policy or pressed a point of view which neither the State Department nor even the White House staff had originally shared."" Hence, the designation of USUN as ""the other State Department."" Beichman, a veteran reporter for the Christian Science Monitor who currently is completing graduate study in political science at Columbia, outlines the ""on paper"" structure of USUN, its belligerency with State, and the ""schizoid implications"" of its dual role as agency both of the United States and the UN. His chapter on Henry Cabot Lodge's term as chief shows how Lodge created USUN's autonomy: Stevenson was too often the victim of a credibility gap. But Goldberg brought renewed vigor and authority. Asked if he got his orders from State, Goldberg replied: ""I was appointed by the President."" Presumably accountable only to the White House--in any event that is Beichman's modest conclusion. The book itself is pretentious in diction and in its appurtenances of academic analysis. It does offer a new slant on USUN, but really little more insight than is already available in Leonard Bloomfield's books and the excellent collection edited by Franz Gross, The United States and the United Nations (1964). Since Beichman shies away from mere topical issues, he doesn't supersede previous studies.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Basic

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION