Abstract
The UN’s first two peacekeeping forces had been assembled with remarkable speed. Within days of the General Assembly, in November 1956, asking the Secretary-General to make plans for the despatch of an ‘Emergency Force’ to Suez, no fewer than 24 states had offered a military contingent. Ten were accepted, and some of these troops could have been in place immediately. As it happened, there was a small delay before the initial elements of the UN Force arrived in Egypt, due to the Secretary-General’s need to sort out certain matters with the host state. Nonetheless, this signal development in the UN’s history had got off to a flying start. In July 1960, in respect of the (ex-Belgian) Congo, the UN was even quicker off the mark, the first contributor’s troops arriving on the very next day after the Security Council had decided to act. In time, they were joined by personnel from 29 other states. Evidently, there was no shortage of volunteers for this new activity.
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Notes
For one angle on the controversies which arose, see A. James, Britain and the Congo Crisis, 1960–63 (London: Macmillan, 1996).
Lawrence Durrell, Bitter Lemons (London: Faber, pbk 1959) 152.
See also, S. Persson, Svensk militar pa Cypern: SWEDBAT och UNFICYP 1964, 1974 och 1987 (Stockholm: FOA (Swedish National Defence Research Institute), 1991) (summarising chapter in English) 83.1 am indebted to the author for supplying me with the relevant parts of his work.
General Welin and K. Akelund wrote, in Swedish and on behalf of the Swedish Ministry of Defence, UN in Cyprus 1964–1993 (Stockholm: Probus, 1999).
J. Kronlund and J. Valla, Suomi Rauhanturvaajana 1956–1990 (Finland as a Peace-Keeper) (Porvoo: Edita, 1996) (English translation of final chapter by J. Brady) 448.
J. Horgan, Sean Lemass. The Enigmatic Patriot (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1997) 193 and 340.
Martin says much the same in his memoirs, A Very Public Life. Volume II: So Many Worlds (Toronto: Deneau, 1985) 546–7.
J. Hilliker and D. Barry, Canada’s Department of External Affairs, Volume II: Coming of Age, 1946–1968 (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, under auspices of The Institute of Public Administration of Canada, 1955) 281.
Interview. For a more general reference to this comparison, see A. Andrew, The Rise and Fall of a Middle Power. Canadian Diplomacy from King to Mulroney (Toronto: Lorimer, 1993) 73.
J. A. Munro and A.I. Inglis (eds), Mike. The Memoirs of the Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson. Volume 3: 1957–1968 (London: Gollancz, 1975) 135.
P. Martin, The London Diaries, 1975–1979, edited and with an introduction by W.R. Young ((Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1988) 394, entry for 26 June 1978. I am grateful to Lorna Lloyd for drawing my attention to this reference.
See J.K. Gordon, ‘The U.N. in Cyprus’, International Journal, XIX (1964) 340.
On 10 February 1964 he complained to a Special Assistant, ‘I’ve been trying to keep these little tinhorn Ambassadors out of here, ever since I’ve been here’: M.R. Beschloss (ed.), Taking Charge. The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963–1964 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997) 236.
M. Carver, Out of Step. Memoirs of a Field Marshal (London: Hutchinson, 1989) 323, says it was 23 March.
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© 2002 Alan James
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James, A. (2002). Recruiting the UN Force. In: Keeping the Peace in the Cyprus Crisis of 1963–64. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403900890_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403900890_8
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