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→History: adding material on Palestine partition and Korean War. Far more needed for this section.
In the original planning stages State Department employee and KGB Agent [[Alger Hiss]] was tasked with much of the organizational work and later became the first Secretary General at the United Nations Charter Conference in San Fransisco. US Secretary of State Cordell Hull said a the time while selling the idea to Congress, "there will no longer be need for spheres of influence, for alliances, for balance of power, or any other of the separate alliances through which in the unhappy past the nations strove to safeguard their security or promote their interest." Nonetheless, the separate alliance of [[NATO]] came into existence at the same time and played a much greater role in US foreign policy commitments and decisions during the [[Cold War]] than the UN ever did.{{fact}}
In the original planning stages State Department employee and KGB Agent [[Alger Hiss]] was tasked with much of the organizational work and later became the first Secretary General at the United Nations Charter Conference in San Fransisco. US Secretary of State Cordell Hull said a the time while selling the idea to Congress, "there will no longer be need for spheres of influence, for alliances, for balance of power, or any other of the separate alliances through which in the unhappy past the nations strove to safeguard their security or promote their interest." Nonetheless, the separate alliance of [[NATO]] came into existence at the same time and played a much greater role in US foreign policy commitments and decisions during the [[Cold War]] than the UN ever did.{{fact}}
In its earliest years, the United Nations was not dominated by the Asian and African "Third World" nations which ultimately poisoned the organization, but was of only limited use in controlling international conflict.
A General Assembly resolution led to the partition of Palestine in 1947, but the UN was useless in preventing armed Arab aggression against the new State of Israel in 1948. In 1950, A UN Security Council resolution authorized use of force to combat North Korean aggression, but that was possible only because the Soviet Union was boycotting the council and unable to veto. It was the only instance during the Cold War in which the UN took a stand against Communist aggression.
In the years to come, the Security Council became frequently paralyzed because of the Soviet veto, and the General Assembly became a shrill sounding board for anti-American sentiment.
==Further reading==
==Further reading==