On one wall in the drawing room of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's apartment in Manhattan's Waldorf Towers hangs a painting of General Custer on a tightrope over Niagara Falls. That peculiarly American image of bravado might seem out of place in the otherwise formal eleven-room suite that is the official residence of the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. But it aptly reflects the spirit of fight and daredeviltry that Moynihan has brought to the U.S.'s Turtle Bay headquarters. Diplomatically and intellectually, Moynihan often does this kind of balancing act. Or, in another Custer image, he makes his stand against the anti-American and anti-Western onslaughts he perceives everywhere—but he is not about to suggest that it is a last stand. Moynihan has enraged Third World delegates, discomfited his Western European colleagues, and brought cheer to the hearts of Americans, who have taken to his brand of dukes-up diplomacy and feel that someone is at last talking back at the world.
Last week Moynihan was deep in his latest battle, at the U.N. Security Council. There the U.S. faced a concerted Arab effort to enhance the diplomatic status of the Palestine Liberation Organization, further isolate Israel and bedevil American peacemaking efforts.
As expected, the U.S. was unable to stand off an Arab drive led by the Syrians to allow the Palestine Liberation Organization to participate in the debate with all the privileges of a member state. Thus a Palestinian delegation, led by the P.L.O.'s "Foreign Minister," Farouk Kaddoumi, made the fourth for mal appearance in U.N. proceedings since Yasser Arafat's triumphal arrival at the U.N. the fall of 1974. Also as expected, Israel's Ambassador Chaim Herzog made good on his boycott threat if the P.L.O. was admitted. The U.S. was thus left alone to defend both Israel and its own Middle East policy.
Early in the week, Moynihan got into a short but sharp verbal tussle with his Russian counterpart. The admission of the P.L.O. delegation, Moynihan protested, showed a "totalitarian" disregard for due process that threatened to turn the U.N. into "an empty shell." Soviet Ambassador Yakov Malik replied: "I agree with the professor, who lectured us that totalitarianism is a terrible thing indeed. But no less terrible is gangsterism." Moynihan had the last, somewhat heavy word: "Totalitarianism is bad, gangsterism is worse, but capitulationism is the worst of all."
nt week's end differences between the moderate Egyptians and the more radical Syrians were still preventing the Arab bloc countries from working out a draft resolution that was expected to call for acceptance of "the national rights" of Palestinians and a timetable for Israeli withdrawal from all territory occupied since the 1967 war. Although the U.S. reportedly would be amenable to a resolution that recognized "the legitimate interests" of the Palestinians, Moynihan—who is acting under precise instructions from a somewhat nervous State Department during this debate—said the U.S. would veto any formulation that mentioned Palestinian "rights" or Israeli withdrawal.