Monday, Nov. 03, 1947
Podzhlgateli Voiny
The great word war over "Who's a warmonger?" ended this week at Lake Success. The month's debate was a sea of platitude lashed by the winds of bombast and invective. It resulted in a resolution condemning talk that might disrupt the peace. Everybody could agree to that. In fact, everybody did; the vote was 56-to-0.
This unanimous vote followed defeat of the Russian anti-warmongering resolution. Andrei Vishinsky and his Slav-bloc friends started from the premise that private ownership of the means of production leads to war. It followed, in Communist logic, that warmongering could not exist in the U.S.S.R., and must exist in the U.S. The Russian resolution named the U.S., Greece and Turkey as responsible for warmongering. Vishinsky demanded that all U.N. governments punish as criminals any citizens whose words might lead to war.
Over & over, the Russian spat out the words Podzhigateli voiny, which means literally "warmonger." However as Britain's Hector McNeil pointed out, a warmonger is "just someone Mr. Vishinsky doesn't like."
The U.S., through Delegate Warren Austin, explained that under its Constitution people can speak good or evil, truth or falsehood. Warmongers and peacemongers had free rein, and throughout U.S. history, especially recent U.S. history, the peacemongers won the arguments. The New York Times said: "What is the real cause of uncertainty in the world today? Is it words or is it deeds? We think it is deeds."
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