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BETRAYAL AT THE U. N. by

BETRAYAL AT THE U. N.

By

Publisher: Devin-Adair

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 police called it the ""perfect suicide."" Bang-Jensen, who had been in trouble at the U.N. over refusing to release a list of witnesses from the 1956 Hungaian hearings, had been dismissed from his post. He also drank, was heavily in debt, and was considered by many to be emotionally unstable. Good reason for suicide said most. The authors here do not agree. After hours of interviews with people who knew Bang -Jensen, discovered his body, etc., they conclude there were elements in the U.N. itself which not only wanted the man fired, but permanently out of the way. His knowledge of Russian deportings of Hungarians was one reason, his firm anti-Communism another. Andrew Cordier, a high U.N. official, becomes one of the suspect. The final argument implies that the Russian murdered Bang-Jensen. Although the idea is a fantastic one (the book often reads with the suspense of a detective thriller) the arguments don't support it. The writers become very subjective in key scenes and interviews, tend to use a fictional approach in many areas, and produce a carload of suppositions without supportive fact. One is never sure, however, that they may not be right---if merely by chance!