Narrator in 1849, it took the clipper ship flying cloud 89 days to reach San Franciscos golden gate harbor from new york. In the spring of 1945, no point on earth was more than 40 flying hours away from San Francisco. In those 100 years, San Francisco grew larger as the world grew smaller. It developed into a vigorous and Cosmopolitan Center of culture and of industry and shipping for the war in the pacific. And for nine weeks in the spring of 1945, San Francisco was the center of mens hopes for lasting peace. Narrator delegates representing 46 nations came to San Francisco on april 25, 1945, representing almost 2000 Million People, more than 80 of humanity. All at war when the conference was begun, they came with hope born of common struggle. They came to design together machinery to end war, a curse which in 30 years had killed 40 million human beings. Narrator maimed countless millions more, both armed and unarmed. Narrator when the conference convened, Franklin Roosevelt was missing. The man who helped weld to the United Nations together as a fighting team and worked to keep them united in the peace to come had died before he could see his dream come true. But his words were in every mind and heart. Pres. Roosevelt 25 years ago, American Fighting men looked to the statesmen of the world to furnish the work for peace for which they fought and suffered. We failed them. We failed them then. We cannot fail them again and expect the world to survive again. Narrator president truman, roosevelts friend and successor, opened the conference by radio from washington. Pres. Truman delegates to United Nations conference on international organization, it is not the purpose of this conference to draft a treaty of peace in the old sense of that term. This conference will devote its energies and its labors exclusively to the single problem of setting up the essential organization to keep the peace. You are to write the fundamental charter. [applause] narrator as the delegates broke up that first night, the task before them was clear to chart the course toward realistic International Cooperation to preserve peace. This was the responsibility vested in them by a warweary world. It was for this they had gathered. At the invitation of the governments of china, great britain, the ussr, and the united states. This was the step made possible by dunkirk and stalingrad and normandy and the burma road and midway. Planned for at casablanca, cairo, moscow, tehran, dumbarton oaks, and yalta. Delegates from 46 and later 50 nations were there, but there in spirit, too, were the victims of warsaw, coventry, shanghai. The hopes of the living and the dead were concentrated in the hands of the representatives meeting at San Francisco. Together, they organized a huge problem ahead of them. The discussion and amendment of the proposals prepared at dumbarton oaks. Each nation was represented on all four large commissions, set up to work out the general provisions of the United Nations charter and the actual structure of the General Assembly, Security Council, and judicial organizations. These committees were divided into smaller working groups, 12 in all. Chinese, english, russian, french, and spanish were the standard means of exchange among many languages spoken. And in nine weeks, the charter was ready to go before the participating governments for ratification. In the General Assembly of the United Nations organization, each member will have one vote. Any matters within the scope of the charter will be discussed here. Recommendations will be made to the Security Council. The Security Council will have five permanent members and six others elected by the General Assembly for two years. It is to be the enforcement arm of the organization. An International Court of justice in permanent session will decide legal aspects of international disputes. The economic and social council will have 18 members, elected by the General Assembly. Special agencies like the food and Agriculture Organization will be affiliated with it. The Trusteeship Council for the advancement of territories held in trust will be part of the General Assembly. It will be equally divided between those nations which administer trust territories and those which do not. There will be a secretary to do the administrative work of the organization. These provisions were not easily arrived at. They were hammered out of debate, stretched and contracted by compromise. The result is a constitution which is at the same time an expression of high ideals and of practical measures. To be effective, the charter needs the active cooperation of people everywhere. The same efforts and understanding that went into the writing of the charter will be needed to make it a working instrument. To fulfill the mutual responsibilities of nations as set forth in the charter, to bring about free world trade and the full employment of mans productive resources, men and women of goodwill everywhere must come to know and understand one another. In this charter, humanity has declared its united purpose to work towards those economic goals. The social and Economic Council of the United Nations organization gives the peoples of the world an instrument with which to promote a higher standard of living everywhere. Through their delegates at San Francisco, the member nations pledged to use that instrument. They pledged, too, to stimulate the exchange of culture among peoples and, in the words of the charter, to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors. At San Francisco, 50 United Nations reaffirmed their faith in the dignity and worth of the human person, without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion. The representatives of 2000 Million People pledged to promote freedom from fear and freedom of expression, freedom from want and freedom of worship. The second week of the conference brought the news of germanys surrender, proof of the power of unity against a common enemy. Narrator but in their wake, the germans left horror and devastation, a specter of fascism in the price of total war, which would haunt civilization for decades to come. Narrator strong and effective machinery must guarantee that succeeding generations shall be spared such destruction. Therefore, at San Francisco, the delegates of the United Nations took concrete steps to settle their disputes by peaceful means, to prevent threats to the peace, to suppress aggression, and pledged to place their armed forces at the disposal of the international organization. Narrator for speedy combined action, air forces will be held immediately available. Narrator final responsibility is vested in the powerful Security Council, authorized to work swiftly and effectively with the aid of its military staff committee. This machinery was not designed without disagreement and dispute. But the final blueprint had the unanimous approval of the participating delegates. And it is now my duty, my honor, and my privilege in the chair to call for a vote on the approval of the charter of the United Nations, including the statute of the International Court and also of the agreement on interim arrangements. If i have your pleasure, may i invite the leaders of delegations who are in favor of the approval of the charter and the statute and the agreement on interim arrangements to rise in their places and be good enough to remain standing while they are counted. [applause] narrator this was a peoples conference, responsible to the conscience of the world. Here, in the midst of war, the worlds people collaborated in the drafting of a workable international constitution. It was a conference to write a peoples charter, opening with the words, we, the people of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind. Narrator it was a peoples conference and a soldiers conference. Meeting under the eyes of veterans of two wars and the generation which must suffer if the constitution fails. Common people and their governments alike were aware of the stakes. Pres. Truman there are many who doubted an agreement could ever be reached by these 50 countries, differing so much in race and religion and language and culture. But these differences were all forgotten in one unshakeable unity of determination to find a way to end war. [applause] narrator this charter points the way, but whether the world is to move in that direction will depend finally upon the vigilance and sovereign will of the peoples of the world. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] this fall, American History tv is airing archival coverage of president ial races. Sunday, we feature debates from the 1992 president ial campaign between president george h. W. Bush, businessman ross perot, and arkansas governor bill clinton. And the 1996 campaign between president bill clinton and former senator bob dole. When senator dole made that remark about all the young elitists in the administration, one of the young men who work for me who grew up in a house trailer, he said, mr. President , up, how didou grew it is sort of their golden oldie. Everybody i just dont think that dog will hunt this time. Here is the record. We cut the deficit for years in a row for the First Time Since before the civil war i mean before world war ii and maybe before the civil war, too. New jobs. 5 million Record Number of new small businesses. We made every one of them eligible for a tax cut. We have declining crime rates. And a 50 increase in Child Support and a crime bill with 60 death penalties and the American People can make up whether that is a liberal record or a record that is good for america. Watch the full debate sunday at 11 00 eastern, 8 00 p. M. On a mac in history tv. Up next on the civil war, Caroline Wood newhall, a postdoctoral fellow at the Virginia Center for civil war studies, discusses her research on black prisoners of war in the confederacy. She talks about the misconception that all captured u. S. Colored troops were executed and describes how many were instead enslaved, including those born free in the north. The center for civil war studies at Virginia Tech hosted this online talk and provided the video. Paul our event speaker today is dr. Caroline wood newhall. She graduated with her phd earlier this year from the university of north carolina. She joined us just, really, if you isa go at Virginia Tech as it postdoctoral fellow at the Virginia Center for civil war studies. I really glad she is here, and i
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