United States and the United Nations: public view 1945-1955

This volume forms part of a series of studies on international organization initiated by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and carried out by private institutions and individuals in more than twenty countries around the world. This particular study is the first of three volumes on United States policies and attitudes toward the United Nations. It has been prepared by Dr. William A. Scott and Dr. Stephen B. Withey under the auspices of the Survey Re search Center at the University of Michigan.
The Endowment's decision, in 1952, to initiate this series of stud ies reflected a long-standing conviction that international organizations, such as the United Nations, are central to the quest for peace and that their significance and functioning depend first and foremost upon the attitudes and policies of nations. The fact that the question of Charter review would be on the agenda of the General Assembly in 1955 seemed to afford a unique opportunity for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the United Nations in terms of national expectations and their fulfillment during the brief but rich testing period of the first ten years. In sponsoring these studies the Endowment has sought to encourage an exchange of unofficial national views, with the object of stimulating a closer examination of the past record and future potentialities of the United Nations and of increasing understanding of differences and similarities in national attitudes toward the Organization.