History Resources

The United Nations and the international community, 1967

A Spotlight on a Primary Source by Israel Goldstein

Israel Goldstein to John D. Buchanan, September 13, 1967. (Gilder Lehrman CollecIn this 1967 letter, Dr. Israel Goldstein, a prominent American rabbi and Zionist, comments on the United Nations as a peacekeeping organization. After World War II, Goldstein, with other rabbis, had lobbied members of the newly formed United Nations for support for European Jews and the establishment of a Jewish state. Their efforts were successful when, in November 1947, the UN adopted a Declaration of Partition for dividing Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.

In this letter, Goldstein looks back on the twenty years of "world peace" since the formation of Israel to determine the major factor keeping that peace. Conceding that the past twenty years "have been marked by continuous threats" to peace, Goldstein writes, "we have been spared a world war." He points to the United Nations as the foremost factor in peace, writing that it "has probably made the chief contribution toward the avoidance of a major war during this period."

A full transcript is available.

Excerpt

Although the past twenty years have been marked by continuous threats to world peace, we have been able to maintain a fitful peace with local interruptions in a number of places, but we have been spared a world war. It is therefore difficult to point to any special contribution to world peace during this period. On net analysis, however, I think that the United Nations, weak and faulty an instrument as it is, has probably made the chief contribution toward the avoidance of a major war during this period.

Questions for Discussion

Read the introduction, view the image of the letter, and read the transcript. Then apply your knowledge of American history to answer the following questions:

  1. Create a timeline of the period between 1947 and 1967. List the most significant threats to world peace during that period and actions taken by the United Nations to each of the threats.
  2. To what extent do you agree with Dr. Goldstein’s statement that “the United Nations . . . has probably made the chief contribution toward the avoidance of a major war” during the period 1947 to 1967?
  3. Review each threat to peace you identified in response to the first question. Describe any United States response to or attempts to influence the United Nations.
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