Bunche Claims U.N. Achievements Make Future of World Optimistic

Ralph J. Bunche last night laid claim to "a pragmatic optimism" about the world's future, based on past achievements of the United Nations. "We have a documented record of the ability to intervene in the most dangerous situations," he declared.

The U.N. Under Secretary for Special Political Affairs told his Harvard Medical School audience that "the situations were not solved, but kept in check" during the last decade and a half--in Korea, in the Congo, and twice in Palestine.

But Bunche also said that the Congo crisis "has brought the most serious threat to the United Nations in its 15 years of existence." He expects trouble to continue wherever several races must exist together in one country. "Can racial strife, even an all-out racial war, be averted? ... We have time, but not much of it."

Springboard for Attacks

At the same time, Bunche insisted that the recent attacks on the U.N. were not caused by the Congo debacle. Last July's events did influence their timing by providing a convenient springboard, he said, but the attacks were part of a calculated effort to undermine the nonpartisan nature of the organization. Bunche obviously had in mind Khrushchev's shoe-pounding in the General Assembly last fall.

Speaking of the "moral decay" in diplomacy, the Under Secretary declared "The responsibility for the deterioration is not in any sense attributable to the new African nations (in the U.N.), nor to the difficulty of African problems."

In a lighter vein, Bunche observed that "we don't have much humor at the U.N.... but we've been having a lot more since Adlai Stevenson arrived." He recalled the Stevenson's joke, originally from a Dutch diplomat, on one of the marks of progress--"now the people in New Guinea are eating only fishermen on Fridays."

"But please don't ask me what the Overseers did this morning about the diplomas," pleaded Bunche, himself a member of the Board.

Bunche's speech was the "61 George W. Gay Lecture on Medical Ethics.