'Journeys for a better world': a personal adventure in war and peace.

In his 367-page autobiography, Journeys for a Better World, Jean Richardot, one of the first recruits to the fledgling UN Secretariat in 1946, recounts 30years of service to the United Nations - in New York, Chile, Morocco, Haiti, Uganda, Jamaica, Benin, and Cyprus. Another distinguished Secretariat veteran, former Under-Secretary-General Sir Brian Urquhart, in the foreword to this book, said of Mr. Richardot: "During this time, he never lost sight, as bureaucrats sometimes do, of the basic function of the United Nations - helping human beings to live a better life." Mr. Richardot, a citizen of both France and the United States, served in the armies of both countries in the Second World War, an experience which set the stage for his UN career. In his personal chronicle, he urges consideration of a permanent UN military force to deal with the menace of new wars anywhere in the world, and stresses the need to deal with the frightening gap between the world's rich and poor. Born in New York City, he was raised and educated in France. He holds degrees in law and economics from the University of Paris. Now 84 years old, he has homes in Middlebury, Vermont (where he has taught courses on the UN at Middlebury College) and in New Canaan, Connecticut. His book is available from University Press of America, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Md. 20706, 1-800-462-64220. The excerpts which follow provide an intimate, inspiring view of the early days of the UN.

A Vow in

a Foxhole

Normandy, France

July 1944

During the battle in the hedgerows, we were frequently shelled by several German 88mm guns that had zeroed in on our positions, causing many casualties. The shells had a high vertical trajectory and fell on us from heights - more like mortar fire - as if from nowhere. It was quite frightening. Our only option was to get into a foxhole as quickly as possible, even if we had to dig it on the spot, and wait for the shelling to end. That morning it was raining and a nasty wind had kicked up. I was in my foxhole, waiting for the end of the shelling, when a piece of Stars and Stripes, the United States Army newspaper, blew slowly in my direction.

It was torn, muddy and yellowed by the sun. I caught it and had begun to read when my attention was caught by a short front page article reporting on some meetings taking place at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D. C.. Experts from the United States and other allied countries were drafting the principles of a new peace organization to replace the defunct League of Nations and establishing the base for a future United Nations organization. Its aim would be to banish war forever from the face of the globe and help member countries to live in peace. respect human rights and improve living conditions all over the world.

I was perhaps skeptical, at first, being too much of a disciple of Montaigne and knowing what had happened to the League of Nations in the 25 years before. This announcement, however, revealed to me, while I sat in danger of being shelled at any moment, had a tremendous impact on me - like a message sent by God. Right then and there, I prayed for peace and the success of this great enterprise and, solemnly, in my foxhole, promised myself that I would do everything in my power to join this new organization if I came through the war alive.

Joining the United Nations

Washington, D.C. - 1946

There were many young men and women like me at the end of the Second World War who wanted to climb aboard the new ship for peace, the United Nations, which was expected to stop war forever. We were all fired up by the noble words in the Preamble to its Charter.

Remembering my vow in the foxhole, I was ready to work in any part of this new organization, destined to become the greatest global human experiment ever. Its purposes, defined in its Charter, were to prevent war, maintain international peace and security, promote social progress and better standards of living in greater freedom, develop friendly relations among nations and achieve international cooperation.

I filled out an application form for UN Secretariat positions and wrote a covering letter to Trygve Lie, the newly-appointed Secretary-General. Then I learned that between 10,000 and 20,000 candidates had applied. My chances appeared slim. How would the UN sort out those thousands of applicants? Since I was working for the State Department, I asked for an interview there with the officers of a new division called International Organizations, which had been responsible for the Dumbarton Oaks meetings where the first blueprint for the UN had been established, and for the San Francisco Conference which approved the UN Charter.

I was told I should talk to Alger Hiss, head of the Division, one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "fair-haired boys". A graduate of the Harvard Law School, he had served as secretary to Justice Felix Frankfurter of the Supreme Court before joining the State Department, and in 1945 had attended the Yalta Conference with Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin as the right arm of Edward Stettinius, United States Secretary of State.

Hiss received me. The meeting was short and cordial. I told him why I was interested in joining the UN Secretariat, explaining my background and qualifications. To my surprise, his attitude was less than encouraging. He said there would be a lot of competition and the Department had decided not to present any candidates. "Everyone will have to fend for himself", he said with a smile, wishing me good luck.

(Incidentally, this rule later proved to be a very poor decision for the United States, as a pre-screening of American candidates might have avoided the difficulties that arose later during the McCarthy "witch hunt" period, to which I refer later. After Senator McCarthy's witch hunt, all Americans working at the UN or who wanted to join the Organization were investigated by the FBI.)

To understand better what being recruited by the UN involved, I decided to go to New York to visit Hunter College in the Bronx, where the UN was temporarily settled, and talk to the Bureau of Personnel. This served me well as, at the precise time I visited Hunter, a session of the Economic and Social Council had just started, and they were in dire need of two additional Assistant Secretaries to serve the meeting, which was to last several weeks. I was lucky enough to meet the Director of the Economic Unit of the Secretariat, at that time Raoul Aglion, a French diplomat who needed an economist bilingual in English and French. I had never met him before, but I appeared to be the person he was seeking. He was able to convince the Bureau of Personnel that they should offer me a probationary appointment.

A London Summer

May 1946

Soon after, I was invited to join the UN Secretariat as Senior Economic Affairs Officer, to serve the newly-created UN bodies in the economic field - the Economic and Social Council and its subcommittees - and to participate in the preparation of studies requested by them. Later, I was given a number of exciting assignments both at UN Headquarters and in the operations field programmes. Joining the UN made my life; I could hardly have chosen a more rewarding career.

I resigned from the State Department, left Washington in May 1946 to work with the Economic and Social Council until the end of its session, then was sent to London to serve a newly-created sub-committee of the Council for Reconstruction of Devastated Areas of Europe, its official name. The sub-committee was to survey war-torn areas, consult with the European Governments concerned and draft recommendations for action by the UN. At that time, it was hoped that the UN would have a role in the reconstruction of Europe. The Council had in mind creation of a permanent regional commission for the whole of Europe. As will be seen, it did not turn out that way.

Our group arrived in London in June for approximately three months. It was a challenging experience for me, as it was the first time an organ of regional cooperation had been envisaged by the UN. Our group settled at Church House in Dean's Yard, Westminster, near Central Hall. Church House had been the temporary offices of the United Nations for a whole year, before the Organization was transferred to New York. The small Secretariat, now at Hunter College, was then directed by Gladwyn Jebb, a brilliant and distinguished British diplomat and the UN's first international civil servant. He was assisted by David Owen (not to be confused with David Owen, the former British Foreign Secretary, later responsible for peace efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina), the future UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs, with whom I was to work on my return to New York, and by Brian Urquhart, who became personal assistant to all the UN Secretaries-General and, afterwards, a UN Under-Secretary-General. Urquhart was to be among the masterminds of the UN peace-keeping operations and the author of Dag Hammarskjold's biography.

In London, it rained solidly all summer long except one Sunday, but we were so busy that it did not really matter; we spent most of the days and evenings in the office or in meetings. The Sub-Committee members, each representing their Governments, were soon divided into three fact-finding teams, one for Western, one for Eastern and the third for Southern Europe. The teams were to confer with the Governments, visit the devastated areas in the three regions, then discuss priority problems with the appropriate ministries. We would then return to London with our data and draft the sub-committee's recommendations. I was designated Secretary of the team visiting the Western European countries. We went to France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and took trips to the most war-torn areas of northern and northeastern France. We saw ruined port installations, particularly in Rotterdam and the region of the Netherlands which had been flooded when the enemy invaded the country; these visits were always accompanied by the inevitable official receptions.

Acting upon the report of our sub-committee, the Economic and Social Council recommended to the General Assembly the creation of a UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), to be installed in Geneva. Its first Executive Secretary was Gunnar Myrdal, the Swedish economist, a Nobel Prize laureate, well known in the United States for his work, The American Dilemma, one of the first extensive sociological surveys on the conditions of blacks in the United States.

Shortly after the decision to create the UN Economic Commission, the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe was launched. It was not linked to the UN; instead it was a partnership among the Western European countries, the United States and Canada. A new organization, later called the Organization for European Cooperation and Development (OECD), was set up in Paris to implement the Plan. As is widely known, the Soviet Union was invited to join the Marshall Plan, but declined. This was one of the first signals of the impending cold war, and, soon after, the Iron Curtain fell, which divided Europe for more than four decades. Accordingly, the role of the UN Commission for Europe was less important than it would have been had Europe remained undivided.

Without the cold war, reconstructed Europe, developing as a single continent, would have prospered faster. Instead, we were forced to wait 45 years to see a reunification of Germany, the end of Communism and the democratization of the East European countries, and the dawn of a new continent with a brighter future, on its way to greater unification of its diverse parts.

The Commission for Europe had not been planned as an operational body. It has been an outstanding research center for its Western and Eastern European member States for more than 40 years, serving them with statistics, economic studies on the problems of Europe, giving advice to the Governments on concepts and policies, doing work in many fields and providing a useful bridge between the two parts of Europe - highly appreciated by both of them. Shortly after the creation of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Western Europeans formed their own Economic Community and elected a European Parliament which, of course, are not linked to the UN, but are favoured by it as the Charter encouraged regional political and economic arrangements. As a matter of fact, regional thinking and planning have become a fact of life.

During the following years, similar UN regional economic commissions were created; one for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) in Shanghai, moved later to Bangkok; one for Latin America (ECLA), in Santiago, Chile (with which I was connected); one for Africa (ECA), in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and one for the Arab countries in Beirut, later moved to Baghdad, which Israel did not want to join.

The UN regional economic commissions have worked very well, promoting integrated economic and social development and regional cooperation in the areas where they have been established. They are a dear proof that many economic problems are best dealt with regionally.

Lake Success

New York - 1946-1947

In fall, 1946, when I returned to New York from London after the sub-commission's work had been completed, the UN Secretariat had moved from Hunter College to the vast Sperry Gyroscope plant in Lake Success, near Great Neck, Long Island, which would be its home until the permanent UN Headquarters were built on the East River in New York. Lake Success, a bedroom community, was about 45 minutes by car from New York City. While Secretariat personnel worked at the duly converted plant, the delegates to the General Assembly were meeting at a remodelled skating rink on the 1939 World's Fair grounds, a place I knew well.

In those days, the Secretariat still was very small, a few hundred people at most. The families of the officers who had joined the UN from their own countries lived for a while at the splendid Lido Beach Hotel on the Atlantic shore of Long Island, not far from Jones Beach. A fashionable summer resort hotel before the war, the Lido Beach had been requisitioned by the United States Navy until the end of the war, and was put at UN disposal because of the critical shortage of housing for our staff.

Limousines shuttled us to our Lake Success offices every morning, as few owned cars in those days. At the hotel, our wives had a pleasant residence and a beach. My daughter Carole was four years old and enjoyed the company of children from other countries, while the wives could play bridge and share their sometimes frightening wartime experiences. We met then at night after their comfortable day for an excellent dinner served at small linen-covered tables bearing single roses in a vase. For those who had just left the war behind them, it was pleasant to enjoy again the niceties of peacetime.

Upon leaving Lido Beach at the end of 1946, some families moved to a new apartment complex called Parkway Village in Queens. But we were able to rent a one-bedroom apartment in a new building on Schenk Avenue in Great Neck, where several UN Secretariat and Delegation families also lived. The housing situation continued critical and, thanks to a special arrangement made by the UN Housing office, this modern complex was among the first available to us in the area. Even though we had a child and, two years later, a second one, we could not get a larger unit. Soon we were able to buy a car. The apartment building had a garage in the basement, something new in the suburbs at the time.

Life at Schenk Avenue was pleasant. We made many good friends there, including Americans, Ecuadorians, Dutch, French, Haitian and Chinese. We visited each other frequently and shared enjoyable parties some evenings. each family preparing a dish and the party moving from apartment to apartment as the meal progressed. The evening usually finished with dancing at the Correas to lively sambas and other Latin American music.

We all kept busy schedules during the day, and I remember spending many evenings and even nights drafting reports to meet Economic and Social Council deadlines. We were still terribly understaffed.

Turtle Bay 

New York - 1950

By the time I returned from Chile in 1950 (I was assigned to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean from 1948 to 1950), the new UN Headquarters, located on a beautiful spot prosaically named Turtle Bay (translated from an Indian name) on the shore of the East River, was almost completed.

The New York site was chosen after a long search. The Europeans preferred Geneva: the Russians favoured a site in the United States. Robert Moses, then the powerful official planner of New York City, proposed the city to the Rockefeller family. John D. Rockefeller, through the New York City Council, donated $8.5 million to the UN for the purchase of the Turtle Bay site along the East River, between 42nd and 48th Streets. an area full of slaughterhouses, warehouses and slums. New York City acquired, then gave the land, an area of 16 acres, and waterfront rights, to the UN; it became one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in New York.

We continued to work at Lake Success until our offices were transferred to Manhattan in 1950. The first day I arrived at the wide, black iron gate in front of the impressive new Headquarters, I felt more pride than ever at having joined the UN. A stream of thoughts came back to me, including the fighting in Normandy and my dream of joining the UN one day. I thought of those who had not come back and did not have the chance I had now, working at what was to be the nerve center of worldwide activities promoting peace.

From the gate, I contemplated the four buildings which comprise the Headquarters: the low, domed General Assembly with its gently curved roofline: the 39-story glass and marble Secretariat Building; the low, rectangular Conference Building alongside the East River; and, on the southwest corner of the site, the elegant building later to be the UN Library, the Dag Hammarskjold Library, a gift of the Ford Foundation.

Forty-five years after its completion, the UN Headquarters in my view still represents one of Manhattan's most interesting works of architecture: it has not become dated despite all the daring and powerful skyscrapers built since the 1950s. The basic design, the work of an international architectural team led by Wallace K. Harrison, an American, included contributions by such world figures as Le Corbusier and Neumeier, who later designed Brasilia, Brazil's new capital. In planning the Headquarters, they had held to two basic principles; to create the most efficient working conditions for the delegates, providing them with a spacious and handsome hall for the General Assembly, well appointed Council and conference rooms; and, for the Secretariat and UN staff, a well coordinated and arresting set of connected buildings.

The tall Secretariat building, where my office was located, appeared to me like a giant matchbox standing on end, its all-glass front reflecting the sky and the abstract silhouettes of the buildings across First Avenue, its two narrow sides made of beautiful green Vermont marble. I entered the gate and passed beside the circular fountain that dominated the forecourt, later graced with the sculpture "Single Form" given to the UN by Barbara Hepworth, whose work Hammarskjold admired.

One of the elevators lifted me to the 25th floor, where the Department of Economic Affairs was to be settled. I wanted to find out whether my office would face the river or Manhattan, for each side offers dramatic contrasting views. Each officer has an office with one, two or three window sections depending on his or her grade in the Organization. The metal furniture is light grey and purely functional. The wall partitions are easily removed to change the size of an office at will. Under each windowsill is an up-to-date air conditioning system to balance the climate of the building's east and west sides to compensate for the heat generated by the sun catching the glass structure in the morning or afternoon.

An American friend, Glen Bennett, a former professional musician and a legendary figure at Headquarters, was the director of the office of the Architectural Committee and later headed the attractive corps of UN guides. He took me on a tour.

The interior decoration for the General Assembly hall, and the chambers for the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council were not yet fully finished. Not until 1952 did the Assembly meet in its hall. This magnificent modern structure. with a 77-foot ceiling, was being fitted with more than 1,000 blue and green seats for the delegations and the public. This was where delegates of the member nations from throughout the world were to meet, the closest thing to a "Parliament of Mankind" ever assembled. Artists and artisans from Scandinavia were still working on the Council chambers' decor. That of the Security Council, often seen on television, was the work of Norwegian Architect Armstein Arneberg and includes a large mural by Per Krohg of Norway symbolizing the promise of peace and individual freedom. The Trusteeship Council chamber was designed by Danish artists, while the Economic and Social Council chamber is a product of talented Swedish designers.

In my first year in the Secretariat. I spent many days working in the Economic and Social Council chamber, which met then twice a year. I was assigned to some of its sessions. as well as to those of the Second Committee of the Assembly (Economic Committee) as Assistant Secretary, the Secretary always being a high ranking officer of the Secretariat who helped the President of the Council or the Committee in the debates, which I had to follow very carefully.

At night, I often was in charge of approving the precis, the official summaries of the lengthy proceedings. I was required to wait until the precis-writers from our language divisions had completed their work, which I had to check carefully for accuracy before they were reproduced overnight for distribution to the delegations the next morning. This was precise work that often kept me at the office for long evening hours; often I didn't get home until eleven o'clock or midnight. Professional personnel were not remunerated for this overtime - it was a privilege that went with the job. Fortunately, my assignment changed after a time of this rather tedious work.

Friends . . .

I could not name all the friends from the Secretariat who helped make my days there so congenial and unique. Yet I must mention a few. Many colleagues had fought in the Second World War. These included Stephane Hessel, the programme coordinator in the Department of Social Affairs. A graduate of the Ecole Normale Superieure. France's top school, he had headed a French Resistance network during the war. Captured by the Gestapo, he was sent to Buchenwald, from which, it was reported, he escaped by being spirited out of the camp in a sealed coffin, passing for dead.

Another hero was Brian Urquhart, who later became Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs, whom I have known since the UN settled in New York. A paratrooper who served in the British Army in North Africa, Sicily and Europe, he survived the most incredible accident when his parachute did not open. Crashing to the ground from a height of 1,200 feet, he broke every bone in his body. Miraculously, he completely recovered after a long hospital stay.

There also was Robert Muller, from Alsace-Lorraine, a friend and later an Assistant Secretary-General who, during the German occupation of France, had fought with the maquis - resistance fighters named for the scrub-covered mountainous terrain where they hid and from which they raided the Germans during the Occupation - while still a student. He joined the UN as an intern, having won an essay contest on the subject of world government. Now retired, he is the Chancellor of the University of Peace, a highly respected author and lecturer and a real prophet of the UN.

One thing I admired most was the manner in which we at the Secretariat were able to work together despite our vastly different backgrounds and experiences.

`I solemnly swear...'

In May 1946, on the day I joined the United Nations, I took the oath of allegiance, as do all members of the Secretariat:

"I solemnly swear to exercise in all loyalty, discretion and conscience the functions entrusted to me as an international civil servant of the United Nations, to discharge these functions and regulate my conduct with the interests of the United Nations only in view, and not to seek or accept instructions in regard to the performance of my duties from any Government or other authority external to the Organization."

As a result, I had contracted special obligations and responsibilities which made me no longer an ordinary citizen of the United States. It is important to understand the principle of independence and primary loyalty of the United Nations staff, one of the tenets of recent international law, as spelled out in Article 100 of the Charter. The idea that individuals may actually have to place their duties to the UN above those of their own country may be difficult to understand for an outsider, but in practice there are few situations where such a choice faces the staff. The overwhelming majority of their duties do not raise problems of national loyalty.

`I believe we can achieve peace on Earth...'

In the 1850s, my grandfather was conscripted and gave seven years of his life to the French Army participating in Napo]eon III's campaigns in Italy. In 1912, my father died at age 28; had he lived, he likely would have fought and perhaps died in the bloody trenches of the First Great War. I fought in two armies in the Second World War, hoping it would be the last, but since then more than 100 regional wars have broken out in various parts of the world. Yet, in 1993, there is renewed hope that a new drive for peace among all nations may banish war through a new and reformed United Nations.

I believe in the human spirit. I believe we can achieve peace on Earth, but only if we exercise the will to create the conditions that nurture peace.

I have been blessed. Born a citizen of the United States and reared a Frenchman, I was given the chance to share the culture of two of the world's greatest democracies. Further, I had the great privilege of raising a wonderful family in a country that encourages us to grow according to our desires. Even further, I had the extraordinary privilege of working for years in the United Nations.

At the UN, I enjoyed the honour of acquiring an inside view of the problems affecting world peace and world development on a globe so full of contradictions, and to work for these two great causes so closely linked. I wish I had been able to do more; looking back over the path of my life, I see myself as just a small drop in the tumultuous flow of the river which carries mankind to its destiny. I remain full of hope for the future. My contribution has been modest, but I believe my life and that of my colleagues and their multitude of experiences can serve younger generations, not only those who want to go into international service, but all young men and women.

In closing these memoirs, my mind returns to the day I stood at the gate of the UN on the East River, ready to enter its new Headquarters, thinking of my buddies in the Fourth Armored Division who did not come home from the war. Thanks to the UN, the risk of another world war is now minimal.

A strengthened United Nations is our best instrument to deter aggression and to take the people of the world to a better life. It remains our only hope. Even in our violent and often war-torn world, where ignorance and misery exist in so many areas, mankind is progressing day by day. We must remain optimistic.