UCLA

This dissertation explores the relationship between the United States and the newly founded United Nations during the presidency of Harry S. Truman. Research for this dissertation consisted primarily of the examination of official documents collected and published by the U.S. Government Printing Office in the series entitled Foreign Relations of the United States,as well as the examination of documents found at the United Nations Archive, New York, New York, the Truman Library, Independence, Missouri, and the U.S. National Archive, College Park, Maryland, as well as on various websites. Additional research consisted of the examination of news articles and opinion pieces published in selected newspapers during the relevant period.

This study found that throughout the Truman presidency the United States maintained an internationalist posture of engagement vis-a-vis the United Nations, but that, under the pressure of the Cold War, the kind of internationalism embodied in U.S. policy at the UN changed from a cooperative, optimistic, Wilsonian internationalism as written into the UN Charter to a much more hard-headed, nationalistic, combative internationalism. In the process, the U.S. government backed various policies which undercut certain underlying UN principles, such as universality of membership and unanimity of "Great Power" permanent members in the Security Council, and as a result weakened the United Nations. Throughout the period the United States enjoyed substantial majority support in the UN Security Council and General Assembly, but in order to maintain that support American policy had to take into consideration, and at various times was modified by, the attitudes of allies and other governments of various middle-level and neutralist powers. American attitudes, both within government and among the public, changed over the course of Truman's presidency, from initial optimism to considerable disappointment, but at no time during Truman's presidency did the U.S. government or the American public desire to give up on the United Nations.