Vandenberg Resolution
Article 51 was soon used as a foundation for Vandenberg’s later works, as he began to realize the need for more regional security due to the threat posed by the paralyzing Russian veto in the Security Council of the United Nations
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I fully understand the pessimism about the United Nations which has taken possession of many of our people. It would be both silly and dangerous to ignore the worsening relationships between Moscow and Washington. But there is a way to circumvent the deadly ‘veto’ There are many other ways to keep the United Nations vigorously alive for essential service even under adverse circumstances. If there were no United Nations today there would be no hope today. This is the simplest possible way of saying that the U.N. must be sustained and strengthened. |
I want a live and let live world if peace with justice can thus be found; and, despite discouragemnts, I decline, voluntarily, to give up the quest. I want honorable friendship around the earth. I want global disarmament dependably protected against bad faith. I want to rely dependably on the United Nations to keep the peace. But pending reliable evolution in these directions, I want a totally adequate national defense. |
To fully realize this goal more had to be done. In May 1948, Vandenberg submitted a resolution recommending "progressive development of regional and other collective arrangements for individual and collective self-defense in accordance with the purposes, principles, and provisions of the Charter [3]," to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It was approved unanimously and moved on to the Senate with the name “Vandenberg Resolution.”
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This resolution is a sound answer to several critical necessities in respect of foreign policy which America confronts. It is the unanimous answer of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It is an answer which, after many weeks of earnest consultation, has the wholehearted approval of the State Department. It is an answer which offers new hope for security and peace for us and others, through the United Nations. |
The Senate approved the Vandenberg Resolution, 64 to 4. The Vandenberg Resolution recommended the development of regional and collective self defense.