Fits and Starts

This chapter deals with the term of the Committee of Information from 1947 to 1949, which introduced a variety of proposals for accountability. It points out how solid Western state domination of the General Assembly and the states' manipulation of UN procedure prevented much of the proposals for accountability from being accomplished. It details the importance of the Cold War in shaping discussion of the UN role in the nontrust dependent territories as the Soviet bloc worked to use colonialism as a propaganda weapon against the West across UN forums. The chapter outlines proponents of an activist UN role in the Chapter XI territories built on the creation of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Transmission of Information to advance a variety of proposals for accountability. It looks at the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Blockade, creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and other international developments that marked the superpower confrontation in Europe.

Organizational Foundations

This chapter details the first of the three-year term of the Committee on Information from 1950 to 1952. It elaborates how activists were bypassing the Committee on Information and making their case in the Fourth Committee, where their numerical superiority afforded them power that they could not achieve on the balanced Committee on Information. It also describes the recommendatory nature of activists that allowed the administering states to ignore them without penalty, although the General Assembly had approved a number of measures for accountability by the end of 1952. The chapter highlights proponents of a more robust UN role in the Chapter XI territories that advanced a variety of proposals to effect more uniform treatment of the dependent territories, which eroded administering state authority. It mentions the UN role in the nontrust dependent territories that had expanded beyond the confines set in the Charter.

International Accountability Assessed

This chapter reviews the process of decolonization on a variety of levels, focusing on the local independence movements that dominate the historiography and reveal that the institutional context of the United Nations was important. It cites that newly independent nations transformed the UN from a vehicle for preserving the status quo to an instrument of global change. It also emphasizes how a decolonization-fueled campaign for international accountability for dependent territories was part of the larger multipronged postwar drive for universal equality. The chapter describes the campaigns for international human rights and racial equality as part of the nonaligned platform. It describes movements that shifted the international gaze from the East–West Cold War to North–South issues.

Toward International Accountability for All Dependent Territories

This chapter focuses on how the two most prominent Western nations, the United States and Great Britain, dealt with the push for accountability. It explains that Washington adopted a flexible approach to UN interest in the territories it administered and encouraged its allies to do likewise. It also refers to the administrations of Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy that proclaimed their desire to pursue a middle-of-the-road approach that favored neither side in the evolving battle over mandated accountability for dependent territories. The chapter investigates that the British position for dependent territories was rooted in the nation's status as the world's leading colonial administrator. It explains Britain's approach to UN activism in the nontrust dependent territories that sought to protect its national prerogatives while also recognizing limited international interest.

Taking Off the Gloves

This chapter demonstrates how the issue of the UN authority on determining a particular territory's status dominated the Committee on Information's third term. It talks about the claim of new member-states Portugal and Spain that they were not administering powers under the terms of the Charter. It also analyses repeated efforts through 1958 to empower the United Nations to declare specific territories non-self-governing and fall victim to the Western states' ability to manipulate procedure. The chapter discusses the Committee on Information's limited terms of reference, balanced composition between administering and nonadministering states, and lack of representation that moderated its tone and prevented it from pushing for the sort of international accountability the anticolonial majority desired. It highlights that the wholesale changes in UN membership began during the Tenth General Assembly in 1955 and made clear the impossibility of forever forestalling the drive for international accountability.

Power Shifts

This chapter recounts the end of the Committee on Information's third term in 1955, which shows the growth that resulted in the anticolonial control of the General Assembly and the approval of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. It looks at the anticolonial element that put the United Nations in the decolonization business, which sought to neutralize the role of the East–West conflict in matters related to decolonization. It also cites the attempts to thwart Soviet efforts to claim control of the accountability campaign and generally reject the US campaign against Soviet colonialism. The chapter reviews how the developing world was beginning to reclaim control of the United Nations from the Western states that had founded it and set the organization on a more universalist course than those states had ever intended. It describes the anticolonial faction at the United Nations that gained the unchallenged ability to dominate debate and shape votes during first two years of the Committee on Information's fourth three-year term.

Rhetoric and Routine

This chapter looks at the Committee on Information's second three-year term from 1953 to 1955, which marks the temporal parameters on its previous term from 1950 to 1952. It examines the presidential administration in Washington that signaled stronger US anti-Soviet rhetoric at the United Nations and a more overt effort to use the Committee on Information for propaganda purposes. It also investigates the Cold War's expansion beyond Europe and the first expression of developing world consciousness in the Bandung Conference that brought colonial questions at the United Nations. The chapter covers the initial stirrings of reformist campaigns and the admission of sixteen new UN member-states, which laid the groundwork for a dramatic expansion in the UN role in the nontrust dependent territories. It mentions the US desire to curry favor with the developing world at a time when the focus of the East–West rivalry was shifting from Europe to Africa and the Middle East.

Activism Triumphant

This chapter looks at the first two years of the Special Committee's life, which were also the last two years of the Committee on Information's term. It looks at the years that marked the full achievement of international accountability for dependent territories as the Decolonization Committee undertook its work with powers that were identical to the Trusteeship Council. It also focuses on the developing world that mirrored other concurrent UN developments and signaled the continued evolution of the organization toward international reform. The chapter cites the culmination of the drive for international accountability that occurred within several large global contexts. It mentions Superpower tensions that extended to the United Nations, where harsh rhetoric remained the norm in Soviet-American interactions.

Crossing the Rubicon

This chapter covers the momentous events of 1961, when implementation of the colonialism declaration dominated UN discussion of colonial questions. It discusses the US efforts to paint the Soviets as imperialist and Soviet appeals for support for their attacks on US neocolonialism that did not gain much traction as the anticolonial faction held tightly to the neutralism of the newly founded Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). It also highlights how the anticolonial faction worked to ensure that the Decolonization Committee embodied an internationalist vision that sided with neither East nor West and sought to assign primacy to the interests of the nontrust dependent territories. The chapter explores the growing power of the anticolonial bloc at the United Nations during 1961 through the admission of former nontrust dependent territories. It recalls the UN involvement to eradicate colonialism that occurred with the creation of NAM.

Laying the Groundwork

This chapter takes the concept of internationalism back to World War I and the League of Nations Mandate System, which undertook the first effort to legitimize global organizational involvement. It clarifies the Anglo-American discord that marked wartime discussion of international involvement in colonial matters. It also cites the US capitulation to the British position that reveals a tendency to lean toward the Western European allies when it came to the idea of international involvement in colonial questions. The chapter discusses the First General Assembly's handling of the nontrust dependent territories, including its initial steps beyond the narrow confines of the Charter. It looks at the proponents of a real UN role in the nontrust dependent territories achieved in 1946 that were a long way from true international accountability.