The UN unmasked: in his new book, Steve Bonta shows that behind a facade of peace, the UN and its supporters are ruthlessly determined to create an all powerful world government. (Book Review).(Book Review)

Inside the United Nations -- A Critical Look at the UN, by Steve Bonta, Appleton, Wisconsin: The John Birch Society, 2003, 127 pages, paperback. (For ordering information, see page 4.)

At a February 21st press conference, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked if U.S. support of the UN Security Council was "conditional in the future on their agreeing with the United States on the course of action in Iraq." Fleischer responded by pointing out that "the President said to [UN Secretary-General] Kofi Annan this morning that the role the Security Council plays is important and continues to be important." Dissatisfied with this noncommittal answer, the reporter then pressed for a more definite statement. "Well," Fleischer responded, "the President has said what is important is that the word of the United Nations be honored."

This has been the Bush administration's position from the beginning of the current Iraq "crisis." The impending war or occupation will not be carried out to defend the United States, but to enforce the UN's will and bolster its power and authority. In his September 12, 2002 address to the UN General Assembly, President Bush himself declared that this was his administration's goal. "Iraq has answered a decade of U.N. demands with a decade of defiance," said the president. "All the world now faces a test, and the United Nations a difficult and defining moment. Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?"

The American people should consider this question as well, especially since it is they who will bear the burden of underwriting, through their blood and treasure, the expansion of the world body's authority and power. To this end, the publication of Steve Bonta's new book Inside the United Nations is particularly timely. The book presents an overview of the UN covering its history, its foundational documents, and the activities and initiatives of its major departments and divisions. While only meant to serve as a brief introduction to the UN, the book nevertheless convincingly dispels the myth of UN benevolence. Mr. Bonta reveals instead that the UN's founders clearly intended for the UN to become an eventual world government, an objective rapidly being realized.

Born of Secrecy

Pundits and politicians have long portrayed the UN as an organization dedicated to peace and justice. Yet, for an organization supposedly dedicated to such a noble cause, its origins were peculiarly secretive. Early in the book, Bonta revisits the almost covert conference (now euphemistically referred to as "conversations") at Dumbarton Oaks that gave rise to the UN. Held in 1944 when national and international attention was focused on momentous events in Europe and the Pacific, the conference largely escaped public notice. Those media organs attempting to cover the conference were barred from the tightly controlled proceedings. Hidden behind the closed doors of the stately federal-style mansion was an American delegation composed largely of Communist spies and sympathizers. "A number of them," Bonta writes, "including the now notorious Alger Hiss, who served as secretary of the conference, were eventually unmasked as spies and traitors." Also in the American delegation were Soviet agents Victor Perlo -- KGB codename RAIDER -- and Noel Field, who eventually took refuge behind the Iron Curtain. Notably among the Soviet delegation were then-ambassador and later foreign minister Andrei Gromyko and the man who at the ...