xiv, 386 pages : 24 cm

Beginning with the birth of the U.N., when Roosevelt, Stalin, Truman, and Gromyko set the stage, United Nations brings us a cast of profoundly important and colorful international players: the brilliant Dag Hammarskjold, who became the most daring, imaginative secretary-general the U.N. ever had; Nikita Khrushchev, who electrified the General Assembly as he pounded his shoe in protest over the Congo; Ralph Bunche, the grandson of a slave and "the Jackie Robinson of American diplomacy," who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his U.N. work in the Middle East; and U.S. ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who walked out of the General Assembly over the Third World's anti-Zion resolution. United Nations is a story filled with action and heartbreak

Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-370) and index

1. The Beginnings: From Dumbarton Oaks to San Francisco -- 2. Trygve Lie and Iran: Off to a Bad Start -- 3. Ralph Bunche and the Infant State of Israel -- 4. The Korean War: No More Manchurias -- 5. Dag Hammarskjold -- 6. Suez: The Empires Strike Out -- 7. The Battles of Katanga and the Crash of Hammarskjold -- 8. Adlai Stevenson and the Cuban Missile Crisis: The U.N. as Theater -- 9. U Thant and the Quest for Peace in Vietnam -- 10. The Six-Day War -- 11. Kurt Waldheim: The Big Lie -- 12. Zionism Is Racism -- 13. UNESCO: Defenses of Peace in the Minds of Men -- 14. Javier Perez de Cuellar and the End of the Cold War -- 15. The Persian Gulf War -- 16. Boutros Boutros-Ghali -- 17. The Somalia Debacle -- 18. Alibi: The U.N. in Bosnia -- Epilogue: The Fiftieth Anniversary -- Appendix I.A U.N. Chronology -- Appendix II. U.N. Peacekeeping Missions (as of April 1995) -- Appendix III. The U.N. System