Veto Power Quotes
The Security Council was never intended to be democratic. It was deliberately designed to give the largest, and most powerful states enough control over critical events so that they would be willing to join at all. Without the undemocratic aspect of the Security Council there would never have been a United Nations.
His main reason for believing this is that all appropriations bills must be initiated by the House of Representatives. Lobbyists therefore often give the House more attention than the Senate.
One major problem at the time was that the Soviet Union was supporting and instigating revolutions in many parts of the world. When most nations of the UN wanted to provide peace keeping troops to quell the conflict, the Russians would veto and block the effort, Vandenberg wanted the UN to change the rules regarding the veto. The right of veto for the major nations was originally included in the UN Charter at the insistence of the United States, and many Americans did not want to give it up or have any exceptions lest there be more in the future. The Russians at that time also did not want to give up any of their veto powers. Another method that Vandenberg wanted to solve the Russian peacekeeping blockage problem was for America to engage in more collective security pacts so that action could be taken without UN Security Council unanimity by going around the UN.
The United States position was that United Nations approval is not required when it is acting to defend itself as the United Nations Charter gives every nation the unilateral right of self defense. America justified the action on the ground that the Iraqis were in violation of the UN resolution regarding weapons of mass destruction and if Iraq had or was developing such weapons, the United States would be a likely target and the Iraq leadership had already called for death and destruction to America so their intention was clear. No such weapons were found.
