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¶ The Russians' memories of the League of Nations, and of their unhappy exit from the League, still burn and rankle. Russia perforce took a back seat in the League; she proposes to take and hold a front seat in the new world organization. Front-seat manners will have to be acquired later, if at all.
The few who could follow Molotov in his own language felt the fierce intensity in his conclusion:
"You must definitely know that the Soviet Union can be relied upon in the matter of safeguarding the peace and security of nations. ... It is the most important task of the delegation of the Soviet Government to express these sentiments and thoughts of the Soviet people."
After that, everybody felt a little better.
The Collision. The bargaining went on. At a second steering-committee meeting, Molotov conceded Ed Stettinius his important committee chairmanships, settled for Big Four rotation of the conference presidency. Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill had promised at Yalta to support the Russian demand for three Assembly votes; it carried without a public dissent.
Well content, Molotov raised but did not Dress Moscow's third immediate demand—recognition and seating at the conference of Poland's still unreconstructed Warsaw Government. Stettinius, backed to the hilt by President Truman and Anthony Eden, met Molotov headon, and the Polish proposal never had a chance.
Molotov accepted the decision—until the executive committee insisted upon admitting Argentina's tawdry, turncoat government on the basis of its recent enforced conversion to the United Nations. At that, Molotov put his Russian back up, rocked the conference with his stern objections.
He called his second press conference, argued quietly but earnestly that Russia asked only to delay the vote until Argentina's record could be studied. At a full session of the world conference that afternoon, Molotov stumped to the rostrum, quoted Franklin Roosevelt and Cordell Hull on Argentina's recent sins against the Allies. But arguments did not count; the U.S., the Latin Americans, most of the Europeans had lined up against him. On the decisive vote, only Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Greece supported the Soviet Union. Many a delegate instantly wondered: would Molotov and his delegation take their beating, stay in the conference?
When Translator Pavlov reported the result, Molotov quietly rose, quietly walked out. Most of the other Russians followed. Ambassador Gromyko stayed in his seat, as if to say that Russia was not deserting the conference. Said Britain's Lord Halifax, strolling from the hall: "I don't think this is the end of the world." The Russians' memories of the League of Nations, and of their unhappy exit from the League, still burn and rankle. Russia perforce took a back seat in the League; she proposes to take and hold a front seat in the new world organization. Front-seat manners will have to be acquired later, if at all.
The few who could follow Molotov in his own language felt the fierce intensity in his conclusion: