(2 of 5)
A. He got it from a lot of people. I merely advised my own general, General Browning, who was in charge of the whole Market Garden operation. I said, "Look here, you've got to rethink this. It's going to be a mess." That was completely overruled. Montgomery wanted to have a British masterstroke to end the war. When you're young, you believe that a good argument will win the day, and of course it doesn't. It was a terrible experience because an immense number of soldiers were killed, 12,000 as I remember. I was greatly & disillusioned because I then realized that people in high positions were not necessarily always motivated by wisdom and concern for the common cause, but in fact could be motivated by other less desirable emotions, like vanity, ambition and a desire to score a point off somebody.
Q. In more than 40 years at the U.N., you must have set some travel records.
A. You know, when the normal way of crossing the Atlantic was in the big liners that took five days, people were more careful about how they organized things. It seems to me that Andrei Gromyko didn't like flying and almost always went on the Queen Mary. Partly it was to have time to have a think and have a rest, which was quite sensible.
Q. How did you view Gromyko? Did his ideology really get in the way of personal relations?
A. To some extent. This was the mistake Dag Hammarskjold made with Khrushchev. He believed if you could establish a personal relationship with leaders, you could actually do a great deal more in times of crisis. That was true with someone like David Ben-Gurion, who after all was a leader in a democracy. It made a huge difference to be able to get Ben-Gurion on the phone and say, "Now look here, my dear old friend, we have to get this straightened out." You can't do that with someone who's representing an ideologically authoritarian regime. They can't afford to take a personal view of politics. We can.
Q. The U.N. seems lately to be involved in a wide range of diplomatic activities and initiatives. Is the U.N. responsible for peace breaking out?
A. I don't think so. I think the change in the international climate, which I suppose started with Mikhail Gorbachev, is of incalculable importance. Of course, if you want to get out of a conflict with honor, the U.N. and the Secretary-General are the best way of doing it.
Q. No doubt you are pleased that U.N. peacekeeping forces won the Nobel Peace Prize.