When the UN excluded Spain because it was a dictatorship, at the request of another dictatorship

The history of the United Nations (UN) is full of curious paradoxes that explain its current situation.

Communist dictatorships established in the world from 1917 to the present
Poland and Spain: the historical links between two great Nations of Europe

The UN turned a blind eye by admitting communist dictatorships among its founding members

One such paradox occurred on December 12, 1946. The UN had been founded on October 24, 1945, shortly after the end of World War II. The organization was established on the basis of a founding charter whose Article 55 committed itself to promoting "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion".

However, the UN has turned a blind eye to communist dictatorships since its founding. In fact, several of them signed its founding charter: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, then ruled by the bloodthirsty dictator Stalin), Poland (a communist dictatorship controlled from Moscow), Yugoslavia (already ruled by Josip Broz Tito), Belarus and Ukraine (both part of the USSR).

The 'Spanish Question' promoted by the Polish communist dictatorship at the UN

The great influence of the Soviet Union on the UN in its early years became evident during the period of the so-called "Spanish Question". Dale Raymond Tash of the University of Montana addressed this issue in a study entitled "Investigation of the Spanish question before the United Nations" in 1951. The representative of the Polish dictatorship at the UN, the communist Oskar Lange, rejected the inclusion of Spain by appealing to Article 34 of the charter, regarding the resolution of disputes over possible dangers to "the maintenance of international peace and security", alleging "international friction resulting from the existence and activities of the Franco regime in Spain".

Raymond Tash explains the intentions of the Polish communist dictatorship, a regime that was under the direct influence of Stalin:

"The Polish government wanted the United Nations to adopt measures which would lead to the overthrow of the Franco regime. This could be done, according to the Polish government, under Article 2, paragraph 6, of the Charter under which the United Nations had the authority to apply the principles of the Charter to non-member nations. The Polish delegation also asked the Security Council to take action under Articles 34 and 36 of the Charter and to adopt any other measures necessary to bring about the collapse of the Franco regime."

Paragraph 6 of Article 2 of the Charter, cited by Tash, states:

"The Organization shall ensure that states which are not Members of the United Nations act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security."

The Polish communist dictatorship wanted the UN to overthrow Franco

Thus, the Polish communist dictatorship had to prove that Franco's dictatorship was a threat to international peace and security. This was difficult to prove, since Spain had been a neutral country in the Second World War. To condemn Spain in this sense for being a dictatorship would be a paradox, since this claim was made by another dictatorship. But these contradictions have never worried the communists, who had the cynicism to call their dictatorship in East Germany a "democratic republic."

The Polish communist dictatorship's petition against Spain was read out before the Security Council on 24 April 1946. At that time, there were two communist dictatorships on the Council: the USSR and Poland. At the meeting, Lange stated that "Franco's government was a cause of international friction." Tash adds: "the Polish government wanted the Security Council to call upon all member of the United Nations to break off diplomatic relation with the Franco government and to encourage the Spanish people to overthrow the Franco regime."

Franco's regime's support for the Polish government in exile

The Polish communist dictatorship's harsh invective against Franco's dictatorship was not only due to ideological reasons. As I explained here, Franco's regime continued to recognise the Polish Government in Exile, the legitimate representative of democratic Poland that had been invaded by Germany and the USSR in 1939. The Allied countries had withdrawn their recognition of that government in 1945, but Spain maintained its recognition until 1969, being the penultimate country to withdraw it (the last being Vatican City on 19 October 1972).

During this time, the Polish government in exile retained control of the Polish Embassy in Spain and the Polish Consulate in Barcelona, ​​which were among the last sovereign territories of free Poland. Thanks to these diplomatic delegations, many Poles were able to find refuge in Spain during and after World War II, as Spain took in Polish exiles who had fought against Nazi Germany in the ranks of the Polish Army loyal to the Polish government in exile, Poles who had been stripped of their nationality by the communist dictatorship imposed by Stalin in Poland.

The UN asked Spain for what it never asked of communist dictatorships

Finally, the proposal of the Polish communist dictatorship was approved by the UN with 34 votes in favor, 6 against and 13 abstentions. Resolution 39 (I) vetoed Spain in the UN "until a new and acceptable government is established in Spain." The text also requested "that all Members of the United Nations immediately withdraw their ambassadors and plenipotentiary ministers accredited in Madrid."

But the resolution added something more, because following the plea of ​​the communist Lange, the UN text included a threat against Spain "if within a reasonable time a government has not been established whose authority emanates from the consent of the governed, which undertakes to respect freedom of speech, worship and assembly, and is willing to hold prompt elections in which the Spanish people, free from intimidation and violence and without taking into account parties, can express their will."

Paradoxically, the UN required democratic conditions from Spain that it never asked of the Polish communist dictatorship (author of the petition that gave rise to this resolution) nor of the other communist dictatorships already accepted by the UN, both then and in the following years.

The differences between the representatives of the United States and the United Kingdom

Significantly, countries expressing objections included such heavyweight democracies as the United States and the United Kingdom. Tash comments:

"The attitude of the United States was expressed by Edward Stettinius who said that the United States would not support any measure "likely to lead to civil war." Sir Alexander Cadogan of Great Britain stated definitely that the United Kingdom would not give its approval to the Polish resolution, because it believed that the regime was not creating a threat to international peace as the resolution claimed."

However, in the end both countries supported the resolution. It should be noted that the Cold War had not yet begun. The US President was Harry S. Truman, of the Democratic Party (a politician who had repeatedly publicly expressed his rejection of Franco's regime, although he secretly maintained contacts with him), and the British Prime Minister was the Labour Party member Clement Attlee, who had asked his country to support the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War. The six countries that voted against the resolution were all Spanish-speaking: Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Peru and the Dominican Republic.

Stalin's death led to Spain's accession to the UN

The international situation began to change for Spain due to an event that occurred in March 1953: the death of Stalin. As a result, the UN began to consider admitting countries that had been among the losers of the World War II and also countries that had been neutral but were under non-communist dictatorships, such as Spain and Portugal. They were admitted to the UN in 1955.

There were other events that contributed to this change: the beginning of the Cold War in 1947, with an episode as bloody as the Korean War (1950-1953), the arrival of the Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower to the presidency of the USA in 1953 (he was largely the one who led the process of international opening towards Spain) and the return of the conservative Winston Churchill in 1951 as British Prime Minister (with an anti-communist profile and in favour, like Eisenhower, of seeking allies against the Soviet threat).

Today there are more than fifty authoritarian regimes in the UN

There are currently more than fifty authoritarian regimes in the UN, according to the The Economist Democracy Index. Completely ignoring its founding charter, the organization admitted the brutal Chinese communist dictatorship of Mao Zedong in 1971, regardless of the fact that this tyrant was responsible for a genocide with tens of millions of victims. He also had no qualms about admitting the Pol Pot dictatorship in Cambodia while that regime was perpetrating a genocide that killed 2 million people in a country with just over 6 million inhabitants. In 1991, it also admitted the brutal communist dictatorship of North Korea, the most oppressive regime in the world.

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Photo: United Nations Photo. A photo of the UN General Assembly taken on October 14, 1952.