BETRAYAL AT THE U.N.

The suicide of former U.N. diplomat Paul Bang-Jensen on Thanksgiving Day of 1959 gained immediate if ephemeral attention from the American press. The New York authorities called it the ""perfect suicide"". The authors of this book quite seriously disagree. Prior to his death, Bang-Jensen left the U.N. over his refusal to release an important list of witnesses from the 1956 Hungarian uprisings. This book points out that certain rumors were current at that time implying the man was despondent, had good reason to commit suicide, and so on. Not so, say the authors. Upon carefully investigating the Bang-Jensen story, talking to people who knew him, interrogating those who discovered the body (the writers feel the position of the body did not indicate suicide), they conclude play was a strong possibility. Who might have done it?- Iron Curtain elements who not only wanted Bang-Jansen out of the U.N. because of his knowledge of Russian deportations of Hungarians and his firm anti-Communism, but wanted him out of the way for good. The authors pressed their search, talking to many others but getting little satisfaction from U.N. officials themselves. Although their idea seems a fantastic one (the book often reads with the suspense of a detective thriller) the arguments don't always support the thesis. The writers seem to become subjective in key scenes, and produce a carload of arguments and suppositions without presenting adequate supportive fact. One is never sure however that they may not be right, by their own analysis, or simply by chance. The book may cause a furor, and a complete re-examination of the case.