Promise of Joy

by Allen Drury

  “Running dog of a capitalist whore,” Sun said quietly. “Your worthless country has betrayed the revolution and you will be destroyed for it.”

  “Mr. President!” Zworkyan exclaimed, again so angry he could hardly articulate. “Mr. President, I demand that the United Nations expel the so-called People’s Republic of China because of its great crimes against humanity!”

  “That is out of order, Mr. President,” Raoul Barre said shortly from across the table. “It is also insane to be indulging in these frivolous exchanges when your two countries are bleeding to death.”

  “His anti-revolutionary fascist clique began it!” Zworkyan shouted.

  “His neo-imperialist capitalist cult launched a sneak attack upon us!” Sun shouted back.

  A roar of boos and hisses swept the room, coming from delegates at the table and from the clerks, secretaries, guards, newsmen and members of the general public who filled every seat, stood in every aisle and crowded thick along the walls.

  “The Security Council will be in order,” Australia said sharply, “and so will everyone else. Visitors are reminded that they are here as guests of the Council. Any further disturbance and the room will be cleared. This is terribly serious business.”

  “Mr. President,” Nikolai Zworkyan said, his breath again coming audibly in angry gulps, “the Soviet Union will veto this stupid resolution of the imperialist American President and his Chinese co-conspirators who have started unprovoked atomic war against my country.”

  “Mr. President,” Sun Kwon-yu responded, equally agitated, “the People’s Republic of China will also veto this resolution of the fascist American President and his Russian running dogs who have launched unprovoked atomic war against my country.”

  “Mr. President,” Ceil said, and for once her voice, too, showed open anger, “I agree with the delegate of France, this is insane. It is also absurd and ridiculous and, were it not occurring in a context so dreadful and terrifying, with the world literally facing destruction if atomic warfare is resumed, almost laughable.

  “But, Mr. President,” she said, her voice becoming quieter and the room becoming completely hushed as she spoke, “it can never be laughable, for it is too horrible. At this moment an atomic cloud, as the distinguished President of the Council says, is drifting toward his country and toward many other countries in the South Pacific. At this very moment cities in Russia and China lie devastated under the sky, utterly destroyed. At this very moment thousands upon thousands are dead, and more thousands, many of them suffering horrible wounds, are crawling somehow from the ruins of what used to be houses and are wandering dazed through what used to be streets.… And the delegate of the Soviet Union and the delegate of the People’s Republic of China sit here attacking the man who holds the key to peace, attacking my country, attacking each other, like a couple of hateful schoolboys: a couple of infantile, spiteful, hateful schoolboys. It is monstrous. It is beyond belief. It inspires in me the thought that they deserve exactly what they get, and that very possibly the wisest course of this United Nations would be to do just what my President said: let them bomb each other and be damned.

  “But, Mr. President,” she went on with a sigh, “of course mankind, for its own salvation if not theirs, cannot be so irresponsible. We have to make some attempt to restore sanity and save the world—we have to make the try. President Knox needs your help and your support—he needs a united world behind him. Please give it to him, I beg all of you who are not directly involved in this matter, for that will be a great affirmation to all the billions who depend upon us here that the world wants peace, must have peace, will have peace.…

  “I know, Mr. President,” she concluded quietly, “that the two culpable governments will, as their representatives here have told us, veto this resolution. The United States will take it immediately to the General Assembly, where we all know its success is assured. We will then introduce our second resolution. Mr. President, I ask for a vote on the pending resolution.”

  “Yes,” Australia said gravely. “The order of voting will begin today with Lesotho. The Secretary-General will call the roll.”

  And so in thirty minutes the headlines said:

  Soviets, Chinese veto UN security council resolution backing Knox, demanding end to Asian conflict. All other members of council unanimously support president.

  And one hour later they said:

  General Assembly passes un resolution backing Knox by near-unanimous majority. Russ and Chinese only holdouts as world body supports president, demands acceptance of conditions, end to war.

  And two hours after that they said:

  General Assembly passes U.S. resolution demanding charter amendment to end veto in security council, over violent Soviet-Chinese opposition. Measure goes to council, where veto still holds until amendment is approved.

  Savage debate begins in council as Moscow and Peking exchange new threats, again condemn U.S. peace attempts.

  “Members of the Security Council,” Australia said with a noticeable tiredness—as they all were tired, after the hour of bitter Council debate earlier, followed by four hours of bitter General Assembly debate, followed by only a brief dinner break before they carried their battle again to the Council—“we are now seized of the resolution of the United States, supported by the almost unanimous recommendation of the General Assembly, to amend the Charter of the United Nations to eliminate the veto of the permanent members and permit action on all matters by simple majority vote. Does the delegate of the United States wish to speak to her amendment?”

  “Briefly, Mr. President,” Ceil said, her face showing the strain of her many sharp exchanges with Nikolai Zworkyan and Sun Kwon-yu, but her general air composed and confident. “The hour moves on, both here and in the ravaged areas of the earth, and we should not take more time than necessary to state our positions.

  “That of the United States is expressed in the resolution. We believe the veto, over the years, to have been perhaps the single most crippling feature of the United Nations. The fact that we have used it in the last two sessions to ward off what we have believed to be serious threats to world peace—”

  “Ha!” the Soviet Ambassador said with an elaborate snort.

  “—serious threats to world peace,” she repeated gravely, “does not change our fundamental belief that it has always been unwise, unnecessary and a fatal flaw standing in the way of a truly functioning world body.

  “Now the veto, like so many other things, is thrown into glaring perspective by the terrible events of recent hours in Asia. If it stands, the present governments of Russia and the People’s Republic of China can, if they so desire, block all effective activity by the peace-keeping force which has been created to maintain peace along their joint border; block effective activity of the International Relief Commission just established by the Secretary-General to aid the Russian and Chinese peoples and those other peoples who may be hurt by atomic fallout; disrupt and prevent any effective further operation of this body as it tries to re-establish world stability; and generally thwart and make a mockery of anything and everything we may try to do in this greatest of all crises.

  “Based on the last five hours, there is no doubt that the veto would be used by these two governments to do all these things.

  “I find it impossible to understand,” she went on, “the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China in their actions and attitudes here today. It is also evident, from the almost unanimous votes so far in both bodies, that the rest of us are equally baffled. It appeared a few hours ago that their governments were aware of the dreadful situation they had created; it appeared they understood that not only their own fate but that of all mankind was involved in what they were doing—and so they stopped. And they appealed to President Knox for mediation.

  “But this no longer seems to be the case. Even though intelligence reports reaching mine and many other governments confirm that the leaders of both Moscow and Peking are in hiding, under
ground and far from those two supreme target cities, still they go on maintaining this dreadful charade of hostility toward one another and contempt for the rest of the world. We thought they had learned something. Obviously they have not. They still could resume at any moment the conflict that could destroy us all. It is truly terrifying.

  “Already the sane world has moved far in the direction of stabilizing itself in the face of this crisis. Removal of the veto is a further imperative step. As the Charter now stands, this can only be done with the cooperation of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. My government begs them to weigh this matter with the most solemn consideration, to put aside their differences and their foredoomed attitudes and to join all of us in taking this absolutely fundamental and imperative step.

  “I would hope, Mr. President”—and she paused and looked slowly around the circle from face to somber face—“that other members would join their voices with mine in urging this course of action upon the two contending powers.”

  “We will,” Lord Maudulayne said promptly. “To Her Majesty’s government it is common sense—the last common sense, perhaps, that the globe will be vouchsafed. We too appeal to the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union to ponder, to reflect and to comply.”

  “France most earnestly does the same,” Raoul Barre agreed gravely.

  “Oh, and my government, also!” Krishna Khaleel echoed fervently. “We do appeal to the governments of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. India feels that she has been a staunch and steadfast friend to them for many years—a friend when others, perhaps, were not. Therefore we feel that we have a right, possibly a greater right than some others, to join now in urging our friends in Moscow and Peking to yield to the collective conscience of mankind in this matter. We do hope”—he turned with a sudden urgent movement toward the Soviet Ambassador, dour and silent, the Chinese Ambassador, grim-faced and tight-lipped—“we do hope—that you will permit this to be done. Please, we beg of you. Please!”

  “It is not easy for my government,” Cuba said, nervously fingering his luxuriant mustache, “to part company with our great friends of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, whom we have always admired and respected and with whom we have had the closest relationship in opposing the imperialist ambitions of the monopoly-capitalist oligarchy of the United States. However”—and for the first time in anyone’s memory, he actually broke down and talked like a human being instead of a Communist automaton—“all those things now seem very far away, I must say to our friends of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic. We are terrified of what may happen to humanity if you do not speedily desist and join us all in building a new and safer world. You are trying to kill each other,” he said, his voice breaking in a sudden harsh rush of emotion, “but you risk killing all of us! You must not, I say to you! You must not! Join us in repealing the veto—join us in all our efforts to save the world! We beg of you—we beg of you!”

  “My government also,” Rumania said in his harshly guttural English, “has always been a friend and supporter of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. But we can go with them no longer. The games are over, the puppet show has stopped. We are concerned here today with no less than the death of the world. You must yield to the needs of humanity, my friends of Moscow and Peking, or be damned with all of us, forever. The veto must go, the peace-keeping force must be permitted to function, the relief commission must go forward with its work, you must use the sincere good offices of the President of the United States to settle your dispute, you must permit sanity to return and be maintained. There is no other way. My government, too, begs you to permit this fundamental step of repealing the veto. It begs you to participate fully in all the other proposals put forward by the President and endorsed by all the nations save your own, for the very salvation of mankind. You must, my friends, you must. There is no other way. And there is no time.”

  Presently, as Zworkyan and Sun continued to sit silent and glowering, the roll of the Council was concluded. Chile, Egypt, Ghana, Lesotho, Norway, Zambia and Australia had all joined their colleagues in appealing to the two contending powers. Neither ambassador responded, and so at last Australia turned to them directly and asked in a stern and challenging voice:

  “Do the two powers concerned wish to address the Council, or shall we vote?”

  Nikolai Zworkyan raised his hand at last and leaned forward to his microphone.

  “Mr. President,” he said in Russian, his words translated swiftly, with all the proper indignant inflections, by the UN’s skilled translators, “my government has listened here today to the mouthings of children. Yes!” he repeated sharply as a gasp of dismay swept the room. “The mouthings of children! You wish us to yield to the imperialist warmongers of the United States, the military-capitalist oligarchy whose puppet is Orrin Knox! You wish us to destroy all the safeguards that protect my country and the cause of world revolution! You wish us to permit the capitalist-military puppet Knox to join the vicious betrayers of the revolution who pretend to have a ‘people’s republic’ in Peking! ‘People’s republic’! It is a fraud, Mr. President, a fraud and a mockery! They are murderers of the revolution, Mr. President, they wish to join the capitalist-military puppet Knox to destroy the Soviet Union! We will never permit it! Never, never, never!”

  And he sat back, glowering angrily about as a despairing murmur swept the room and around the circle his colleagues stared at him with absolute dismay. All except one, who leaned forward to grasp his microphone with both hands and spit into it a venom equally harsh and equally far away from all the mortal concerns that now confronted humankind.

  “Mr. President!” Sun Kwon-yu snapped in a fluent and hurrying English. “Mr. President, my government has listened patiently to all the empty frightened words of petty powers who wish to destroy this United Nations and the people’s revolution. We reject them. We reject the attempt to destroy the United Nations and bend it to the will of the arch-conspirators, the arch-devils who are trying to destroy the People’s Republic and the people’s revolution, namely the U.S.S.R. and the United States! We reject the running dogs of capitalism who sit in Washington, the whoremasters of anti-revolution who cower in Moscow. We reject their conspiracy, we will destroy their evil. We will never yield to them, Mr. President! Never, never, never!”

  “Mr. President,” Ceil said into the hush that followed, “may I ask the two delegates, are they able to be in touch with their governments?”

  “I do not need to be in touch!” Zworkyan said angrily. “I know what they want!”

  “The people’s revolution does not need consultations!” Sun spat out. “Its representatives know from birth what is right!”

  “Then we are hearing simply the old clichés,” Ceil said quietly, “the mechanical mouthings of machines that are broken at the center. Mr. President, I think we should vote on the resolution of my government.”

  “I agree,” Australia said, his voice shaking with emotion but firm. “The vote will begin with Norway.… On this vote,” he reported formally five minutes later, “the Yeas are 13. Two of the permanent members having voted No, the resolution is defeated.”

  “Mr. President,” Ceil said into the hubbub that instantly filled the room and was as instantly silenced when she spoke, “I wish to inform the Council that the President of the United States will speak to the peoples of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China one half hour from now. I suggest the Council stand in temporary recess to hear his address.”

  “Mr. President!” Zworkyan and Sun cried together.

  “Without objection,” Australia said loudly, banging down the gavel, “it is so ordered.”

  “He isn’t wasting any time, is he?” The New York Times remarked as he and his colleagues watched the milling crowd empty quickly out toward the General Assembly, where several huge television screens were being hastily set up. The London Observer nodded. “There isn’t any
time left to waste,” he said. “But, Orrin, my friend,” he added as they too left the press section and headed for the Assembly, “you’d better be good.”

  And good he was, for he had known for some hours that he was going to have to do exactly what he did.

  Far off in some other world almost forgotten, it had been considered, by all those critics who now fawned desperately upon him, abominably bad taste for the democracies to attempt to do to the Communists what the Communists were always attempting to do to them. Even when the Communists succeeded, as they had on a good many occasions, any suggestion that the democracies do likewise had always been greeted with frantic denunciations from the most influential journals and opinion-makers of the West. So it had been very rarely that democracy had used against Communism the principal weapons Communism always used against democracy: internal subversion and the deliberate overthrow of opposing governments.

  Now, however, he knew that it must be done, and because of the circumstances he had no doubt that he would succeed. Nor did he have any doubt that the method he intended to use was the only one. He was dealing with a billion captive, terrified, frantic people and there was no time or place for diplomatic niceties or sweet civilized exhortations. The hour compelled him to be as rude, crude, bluntly shattering and effective as he could possibly be. He must address them like a sledgehammer. The certainty lent an extra incisiveness to his voice as he faced the cameras of the world and began with a slow and somber emphasis:

  “People of Russia, people of China!

  “I speak to you from the outside world which looks to you to save yourselves and humanity from final destruction.