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November 13, 1974

United Nations General Assembly Official Records, 29th Session : 2282nd Plenary Meeting, Agenda Item 108, 'Question of Palestine (continued)'

As other documents in this collection on Moroccan nationalists in 1947 and 1950 have exemplified, the United Nations was an important arena in decolonization struggles for Arabs, as it was for Asians and Africans as e.g. Alanna O’Malley’s The Diplomacy of Decolonisation: America, Britain, and the United Nations during the Congo crisis, 1960-1964 (2018) has shown. In this regard, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was founded in 1964 and taken over by the Fatah movement in 1969, was no exception.

To be sure, Palestinian organizations including Fatah and the PLO decried key UN actions. One was the UN Palestine partition plan of 1947; another was UN Security Council resolution 242 of November 1967. Calling upon Israel to withdraw “from territories occupied” during the Six-Day War in June and calling for the “acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace,” it did not mention Palestine or the Palestinians. Even so, the PLO sought to get access to the UN and UN recognition. A crucial landmark on this road was the address to the UN in New York in November 1974 by Yassir Arafat (1929-2004), a Fatah co-founder in 1959 and from 1969 PLO chairman.

Arafat did not speak at the Security Council, which was and is dominated by its five veto-carrying permanent members Britain, China, France, the United States, and the USSR/Russia. Rather, he addressed the UN General Assembly (UNGA), where from the 1960s Third World states were in the majority; his speech was the first time that the UNGA allowed a non-state representative to attend its plenary session. The UNGA invited the PLO after having decided, in September, to begin separate hearings on Palestine (rather than making Palestine part of general Middle Eastern hearings), and after the PLO was internationally recognized as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, a landmark accomplishment for the organization. The UNGA president who introduced Arafat, Abdelaziz Bouteflika (1937-2021), was the Foreign Minister of Algeria, which since its independence in 1962 had supported the Palestinian cause organizationally, militarily, and politically. Arafat spoke in Arabic; the below text is the official UN English translation. Arafat did not write the text all by himself; several PLO officials and Palestinians close to the PLO, including Edward Said, assisted, as Timothy Brennan has noted in Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said (2021). Later in November 1974, the UNGA inter alia decided to give the PLO observer status and affirmed Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

October 15, 1967

Letter, Father Paul White to President Harry S. Truman

Father Paul White, a resident near the 38th Parallel, proposes the establishment of the Truman Memorial Hospital in South Korea.

October 19, 1964

J.S. Mehta, 'China's Bomb and Its Consequences on her Nuclear and Political Strategy'

Analysis of the recent Chinese nuclear weapon test and it's strategic implications for China's diplomatic and military policies.

February 18, 1953

Indian Ambassador to the Soviet Union K. P. S. Menon Interview with Stalin

Menon and Stalin meet in Moscow to discuss Indo-Soviet relations. The two speak on issues including India's ethnic makeup and prospects for Indian military and economic development.

January 2, 1951

Special Report No.1 from the Korean Embassy in China to the Office of the President, 'The Secret Sino-Soviet Military Agreement'

The Korean embassy in Taipei reports to Syngman Rhee with details on the alleged 'secret Sino-Soviet military agreement'.

July 2, 1945

Record of a Meeting between T.V. Soong and Stalin

Notes taken during meetings between the Chinese nationalist government and the Soviet Union in Moscow during Sino-Soviet treaty negotiations.

November 14, 1954

Jawaharlal Nehru, 'Note on Visit to China and Indo-China'

Nehru gives a detailed report on his visit to China and Indo-China. He first gives a summary of the issues and topics he covered in discussions in China with Zhou En-Lai and Mao, which covered a broad range of subjects including China's Five Year Plan, and various foreign policy issues. Nehru then describes his visit to Indochina, where he speaks with Ho Chi Minh (five days after he takes control of Hanoi) in North Vietnam, and also tours South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

1976

Korea: Uneasy Truce in the Land of the Morning Calm (New York: American-Korean Friendship and Information Center, 1976)

The AFKIC introduces its mission, the history of Korea, and the current situation on the Peninsula.

1974

North Korean Journey: A View of Workers’ Democracy

Fred Carrier reports on a visit to North Korea made by the AKFIC in June-July 1973.

1973

Comments from Leading American Senators

An insert to an AKFIC publication on the role of the U.S. Congress in U.S.-North Korean relations.

Pagination