Why the UN Should Bar Red China
DOUGLAS, PAUL H.
Why the United Nations Should Bar Red China By Paul H. Douglas U.S. Senator from Illinois One of the major diplomatic aims of international Communism is the admission of Communist China to the...
...I think that our policy was one of wise restraint...
...I believe that many of those who think that Red China should win a UN seat do so with the best of motives...
...To further give the lie to Communist propaganda, I would like to recall that the Congress of the United States has passed four unanimous resolutions opposing the admission of Communist China to the United Nations...
...The view that the new nations in Asia are tiny, out-of-the-way places with which Europeans have no concern is as ill-founded as Neville Chamberlain's position on Czechoslovakia in 1938...
...They have tried to foster the belief that all those in the United States who oppose admitting Communist China to the UN, and who favor strengthening our Nationalist Chinese allies, are lunatic-fringe reactionaries, conservatives, or members of the nebulous "China Lobby" and represent a tiny minority of American opinion...
...If the latter is to be an agency for collective security, we certainly should not admit a flagrantly aggressive nation...
...I do not...
...To present the basis of our opposition to admitting Red China to the UN, let me cite Article IV of the Charter of the United Nations, the first clause of which reads as follows: "Membership in the United Nations is open to all peace-loving States which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and which, in the judgment of the organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations...
...I think we ultimately agreed to terms which were a threat to peace in the Far East...
...It has violated every rule of civilized warfare by torturing and brain-washing our boys who were captured...
...Just as the Europeans, when they faced the Nazi onslaught, called on the United States to abandon isolationism, so we must now call on Europe to abandon isolationism before the Communist onslaught...
...A footpad is not normally escorted to the bench and asked to judge burglary and assault cases...
...In addition, every major national labor, fraternal, veterans and civic organization has endorsed the petition or its purpose...
...Over 1,037,000 Americans signed the Committee's petition against admitting Red China...
...We should remember that, if we admit Peking to the UN, we are admitting it not only to the 76-member General Assembly but also to the all-important Security Council...
...I would insist that the test for admission be actual performance and not mere promises...
...I had hoped that, before calling off the Korean struggle, we might be able to get an effective pledge that the Chinese forces would not be transferred to the border of Indo-China...
...If the strong non-Communist nations yield on this, why should we expect small young nations like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and Burma to stand fast...
...They can make all kinds of promises, but the test is whether they are willing to abide by them...
...There is no question that Red China has been, and is, an aggressive agency in Southeast Asia...
...This group was organized to mobilize American public opinion against the admission of Communist China to the United Nations...
...In fact, she was never invaded during the entire course of that "police action...
...A seat for Red China in the United Nations would mean the beginning of the end for Asia...
...Despite all wishful thinking, it is not possible to divorce Europe from Asia...
...At that time, it was quite apparent that the League had bogged down as an agency for collective security, because it had among its members nations which were not peace-loving but aggressive...
...Unfortunately, many people among our allies and in our own country have fallen for this line...
...For this reason among others, I became a member of the Committee of One Million and am honored to serve on its Steering Committee...
...Admission to the UN would give Peking respectability and imply that Communist China was now in effect recognized by the free world...
...We not only tried to follow all the rules of international law we also exhibited an extraordinary degree of moral principle...
...It should also be remembered that Red China invaded North Korea in October and November 1950, before her own borders were transgressed...
...With Soviet Russia, we would then have two aggressive nations on that vital body...
...I was in Italy in 1935 when the League was struggling with the question of whether effective sanctions could be invoked against Italy because of its invasion of Ethiopia...
...It is inciting subversion among the overseas Chinese in Malaya and elsewhere...
...It is quite plain that Red China stimulated the original invasion of South Korea, in June 1950, and gave effective aid to the North Koreans throughout the war...
...Nor has it returned all the prisoners hundreds of young Americans are still unaccounted for, somewhere behind the Bamboo Curtain...
...It is true that the original United Nations admitted a number of Communist nations, including Russia, which since have thoroughly indicated that they are aggressive...
...It would weaken nations like the Philippines, which have been opposing Peking, and it would strengthen the countries sympathetic to Peking...
...This clearly means that the UN was not meant to be universal and that it should not embrace aggressors...
...I will not blame anyone for not guarding against this danger...
...If the Communists take Asia, Communist strength everywhere will be enormously increased, especially in Europe...
...One need only consult back newspaper files to find categorical statements to the same effect by virtually every American leader, including Presidents Truman and Eisenhower...
...I do not believe that our people will ever sacrifice morality and decency to expediency...
...During the Korean War...
...But the Peking regime has also violated every precept in the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights...
...What would be the practical effect of admitting Red China to the United Nations...
...This regime, which promised the Chinese people peace and plenty, not only presses its subjects into slavery in their own country but, according to the UN report, exports slaves to European Communist countries as payment for weapons and ammunition...
...Under what conditions then, if any, could Red China be admitted to the United Nations...
...There is a very powerful and able group in this country working for the admission of Communist China to the United Nations...
...And, while I believe in the doctrine of repentance and forgiveness, repentance should be proved by atonement and concrete performance for a decent period of time before the guilty person or nation is accepted into civilized company...
...Appeasement of tyranny never pays off...
...We confined our attack or defense to the Korean peninsula...
...In a recent official report, made by Secretary-General Hammarskjold to the 21st Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, documented facts were cited showing Communist China's inhumanity to its own people...
...The greatest obstacle to this effort has been the strong opposition of the United States...
...I believe that this particular article was framed with the history of the League of Nations in mind...
...This is hardly a tiny minority of American public opinion...
...But certainly the record shows that we were anxious for peace...
...It is unique in that its membership represents not only both major political parties, but also a wide divergence of opinion within each party which has come together on this one issue...
...China was twice the aggressor in the Korean War...
...I stress these points because I feel it important that our allies should realize that opposition to the Peking regime is the considered opinion of the great majority of all Americans...
...Some of my colleagues probably think that we should have attacked the Communist centers in China...
...It is based on realism plus morality rather than mere theoretical idealism...
...But should we add to their strength by admitting more nations which, by their record, are clearly aggressive and have indicated no real desire to change...
...When every one of the soldiers, civilians, missionaries and businessmen still held captive in Red China is returned to freedom, when the 25 million Chinese slave laborers are freed, and when the Chinese people has the opportunity to choose the government it wants in free elections supervised by truly neutral nations, then and only then should Red China be considered for membership in the UN...
...It includes 24 Senators of both parties, 97 Congressmen of both parties, 9 Governors of both parties, 8 former ambassadors, and one former Secretary of State (General George C. Marshall...
...The report estimates that 1.5 million Chinese have been shipped to Eastern Europe to work as slaves...
...In view of these facts, and countless others that show the true nature of the Peking regime, I can see no ethical justification for admitting Red China to the United Nations...
...The Communists can switch their propaganda on and off at will...
...we were scrupulous in not attacking Chinese staging areas, or transportation and supply centers, within China itself...
...The Chinese Communists' record in international affairs is sufficient in itself to bar them from a seat in the United Nations, for they have violated every principle of the UN Charter...
...The Peking regime has literally enslaved 25 million Chinese perhaps the greatest slave-labor force in modern times, exceeding even that in the Soviet Union...
...It supplied the Communist armies in northern Indo-China...
...It would be a bitter blow to the morale of those Asian peoples willing to resist the spread of Communism...
...It would give that regime desperately needed prestige in Asia...
...Because of the veto power held by members of the Security Council, it is not now possible to expel these members...
...The Communists have done everything in their power to discredit our stand on this question...
...I am not criticizing their motives, but I believe these men and women to be desperately wrong...
...I think it was this experience of the League which caused the Charter of the United Nations to be drafted so that membership was limited to "peace-loving" countries...
...It would establish Red China as the leading power in Asia...
...Yet, we leaned over backward in making a cease-fire agreement with her...
...Under the League's provisions for unanimity, these aggressive nations were able to stalemate any proposal to make that body work for collective security...
...To my mind, this would be a disaster...
...Peking has completely failed to live up to its commitments under the Korean armistice agreement...
...Senator from Illinois One of the major diplomatic aims of international Communism is the admission of Communist China to the United Nations...
...Those urging admission of the Peking regime to the United Nations do not, in my judgment, represent the majority of the American people...
Vol. 39 • June 1956 • No. 24
