Excerpt
Politics, it has been said, is "the arena where conscience and power meet, and
will be meeting until the end of time."
Conscience so often fares poorly in such encounters that we celebrate the
occasions when Power gives her more than a tip of the hat. In April 1945, as
delegates from fifty lands gathered in San Francisco for the United Nations
founding conference, Power was much on display. Battleships leaving the Pacific
harbor with men and materiel were a grim reminder that the war with Japan was
still raging. The tides of war in Europe, however, had turned in favor of the
Allies, and the "Big Three" (Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States)
had begun jockeying for the positions they would hold in the new world order. As
part of their planning for the postwar era, the Allies invited to the San
Francisco conclave all states that had declared war on Germany and Japan by
March 1, 1945.
The Allied leaders had agreed in principle on the need for an international
organization to prevent future aggression, assure the stability of frontiers,
and provide a means for resolving disputes among nations, but the most vigoro ... read full excerpt from: A World Made New ebook
