Perilous Veto

They might try to escape the boredom of debate and deadlock by fiddling with their pencils, twiddling their thumbs or staring at the floor and ceiling. But one fact the members of U.N.'s Security Council could not escape last week: history was at their throats. The debate was on the U.S. formula for a two-year peace watch by the United Nations on the war-threatened borders of Greece. There, like the pebble that starts an avalanche, even a minor explosion might precipitate events that would involve the world in a third global war. Would Russia, the power behind the provocations against Greece, veto the U.S. proposal?

The Council chairman, Poland's Oscar Lange, called for the vote that really counted--the noes on the U.S. motion as a whole. Quickly he shot up his own hand. Then Russia's sullen Andrei Gromyko raised his. Thus, for the eleventh time in the short history of the United Nations, Russia had used the veto. The Balkan peace watch was dead, 2 to 9.

Said U.S. Delegate Herschel Johnson: ". . . A simple abuse of power, abuse of the veto . . . we are not going to let the thing go by default. . . ." Everybody in U.N., including the Russians, knew that. They had known it since U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall rushed to Washington from the Salt Lake City Governors' Conference a fortnight ago upon reports that an "international brigade" was forming north of Greece.

The U.S. was determined to stop aid to Greek guerrillas from Greece's northern neighbors, but it would work as long as possible within the U.N. framework. Last week the first step was taken. Greece, charging that there had been a breach of peace, invoked Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter. Under that chapter the Security Council can apply economic or military sanctions against Albania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria if they continue to support armed aggression against Greece. If the international brigade moves into Greece, and Russia vetoes action under Chapter VII, the U.S. is prepared to take step two: invoke Article 51 ("Nothing . . . shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations. . . ."). As a last alternative, the U.S. might take joint military action (i.e., send U.S. troops) to secure the border of Greece.

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