INTRODUCTION The General Assembly, the principal political organ of the United Nations in which all U.N. members are represented, meets regularly every year from September to December to debate issues of world concern. The U.S. delegation to the General Assembly traditionally consists of the Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations, plus public delegates appointed by the President for each General Assembly session and confirmed by the Senate. The appointment of public delegates brings distinguished Americans to the U.N. and demonstrates to U.N. member states the United States' commitment to the world organization. The public delegates to the 34th session included two senior members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and three other Americans selected from the public at large. U.S. delegates and alternates to the 34th General Assembly were: Representatives Hon. Donald F. McHenry, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Hon. Benjamin S. Rosenthal, U.S. Representative from the State of New York. Hon. Larry Winn, Jr., U.S. Representative from the State of Kansas. Hon. Esther L. Coopersmith, Washington, D.C. Alternate Representatives Hon. William L. Dunfey, Hampton, N.H. Hon. Richard W. Petree, Ambassador, Deputy U.S. Representative on the Security Council. We accepted appointment to the U.S. delegation in full knowledge of the additional responsibilities involved. From the outset, we understood that only by participating fully in the U.S. mission's special briefings, regular delegation meetings, and official receptions as well as in our General Assembly assignments, could we fulfill what we believed to be our obligation as delegates. Both of us spent a significant part of the fall of 1979 in New York at the General Assembly session. Our assignment meant unavoidable absences from our traditional congressional responsibilities, and we were well aware that our constituents were not generally enthusiastic about the United Nations. At the same time we believed that our assignment could sharpen our understanding of the United Nations, both its strengths and weaknesses, and that it could assist our continuing work as members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee which considers legislation on U.S. participation in U.N. organizations and programs. (1) This report seeks to accomplish two purposes. First, it summarizes our joint observations on the U.S. mission and the General Assembly session. Second, because of the relevance of numerous international issues discussed at the General Assembly to our ongoing congressional responsibilities, we also summarize certain "Selected Issues" before the General Assembly and the U.N.'s role in the early phases of the Iranian crisis. OBSERVATIONS OF CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATES In this part of the report, we summarize our preparations and orientation, our U.S. Mission and U.N. General Assembly assignments and our assessment of this experience. Subsequently, we offer several suggestions for improving that experience for future congressional delegates. PREPARATION AND ORIENTATION Being a full-time, active delegate to the General Assembly is a real challenge in terms of being adequately prepared. Our best preparation was our long years of congressional-legislative experience in foreign affairs, and we drew from this continually. In addition, a staff briefing in July 1979 on the General Assembly's organization, procedure and agenda and the U.S. Department of States' 2-day seminar for delegates and alternates just before the Assembly opened in September were helpful. In the latter regard, senior Department officials from both regional and functional bureaus briefed us on U.S. policy on European, African, Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern issues as well as such problems as the NorthSouth dialog, human rights, arms control, decolonization and budgetary matters. The Department's 2-day seminar program appears in appendix I. This briefing could have been more useful had a discussion of the U.N. political process and the nature of multilateral diplomacy been included. During the Department briefing, Ambassador Richard Petree of the U.S. Mission in New York discussed with us the Mission's plans to involve us in its work during the General Assembly. Since previous congressional delegates had criticized the Department for its indifference to congressional participation, we were pleased that it was making this initial effort. PARTICIPATION IN U.S. MISSION As members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, our usual responsibilities involve us in setting guidelines for foreign policy. However, as U.S. Delegates, our responsibilities involved us in formulating and implementing U.S. policy to the U.N. The U.S. Mission to the United Nations, one of eight missions maintained by the U.S. Government at the headquarters of international organizations,1 was officially established in 1947 by the United Nations Participation Act of 1946. The mission is a key link between the Department of State's Bureau of International Organizations and 1 The other missions are located in Montreal (International Civic Aviation Organization); Vienna (U.N. Industrial Development Organization; International Atomic Energy Agency); Rome (Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Program; International Fund for Agricultural Development; World Food Council); Nairobi (U.N. Environment Program); Washington, D.C. (International Banks); Geneva (World Health Organization; International Labor Organization; International Telecommunications Union; and other U.N. Programs). the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Security Council, the Trusteeship Council and the Secretariat. Our representatives at the Mission serve such important foreign policy functions as: officially representing the United States at U.Ñ. meetings; gathering and collecting information, reporting information to the Department of State in Washington; developing tactics and strategy for implementing U.S. policy in meetings of U.N. organs; staffing delegations to U.N. meetings; and providing information to the U.S. public on U.N. activities. When we arrived in mid-September, the Mission's leadership was in transition. Ambassador Andrew Young had resigned. His Deputy Representative Donald McHenry, had just been nominated to succeed him and Ambassador Petree had been nominated as Deputy to the Security Council. The Senate confirmed both of them in mid-October. Subsequently, Ambassador Vanden Heuvel was nominated and confirmed as Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Still later, Mr. Carl McCall was appointed and confirmed as U.S. Representative to the Trusteeship Council. However, the post of Ambassador to the Economic and Social Council which is responsible for the General Assembly's Second and Third Committees on problems of international economic cooperation, U.N. restructuring, human rights, and the proposed global economic negotiations remained vacant during the entire 34th session. As of this writing, we are pleased to learn that an Ambassador has been nominated. The permanent Mission staff, composed of U.S. Foreign Service, CIA and Civil Service personnel, numbers well over 100 persons. During the General Assembly, the State Department may assign additional Foreign Service officers to cover particular agenda items. The Mission is organized into several sections: Political and Security Affairs; Economic and Social Affairs; Resources Management (Budgetary and Financial matters); Legal Counsel; Military Affairs; Press and Public Affairs; Administrative Services; Reference and Communications; Host Country Relations and Protocol, as illustrated on the chart on page 5. The particular responsibilities of these sections are described in a U.S./U.N. factsheet in appendix II. The Ambassadors and U.S. mission staff made a special effort to integrate the public delegates in their work during the General Assembly session in various ways: First, the mission assigned each of us an office and a secretary. Second, we attended delegation meetings, usually twice a week. These focused on such timely subjects as Kampuchean relief, SALT II, the negotiations on the U.N. Third Law of the Sea Conference, and the scale of assessments, as well as on particular issues under discussion in the General Assembly, for instance, the contest between Cuba and Colombia for the nonpermanent seat on the Security Council. We met daily with Ambassador McHenry on the situation in Iran and U.S. efforts to seek a settlement of that crisis. Third, we received each morning and afternoon copies of the incoming and outgoing cable traffic between the mission and our Embassies and missions abroad and the State Department in Washington on |