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New National HI At K MONITOR Deeember. 1979
Focus on International
and National Aspects of the
“Andrew Young Affair’’
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Andrew Young’s resignation last August
as United States Ambassador to the United
Nations brought to the surface a number of
major Third World concerns. These includ
ed (a) the ongoing American policy position
in relation to black Africa, (b) the hitherto
largely unspoken role of the Middle East on
black American and Third World life, and
(c) Black-Jewish relations in the United >_
States.
Ry
Andrew Young
Perhaps oddly enough, Mr. Young—as
he doubtlessly would have it—has moved
into the background, as the issues which he
would feel deserve attention have come into
national and world prominence.
Shortly after his resignation, Mr. Young
indicated that he would probably go into
public relations work and make his home
once again in Atlanta. While the over
whelming majority of United Nations
leaders have been unstinting in their praise
of Andrew Young’s almost unparalleled
influence on U.N. life, sentiments regard
ing Mr. Young’s positive role in global
affairs have been the least praiseworthy in
the American press. Thus former Ambassa
dor Andrew Young returns to private life
with the not altogether novel recognition
that “a prophet is not without honor,
except in his own country.”
...ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE ON THE NATIONAL 5CENE........
Page 4
Monitor Microscope
A Close-Up View Os Third World Events*.
So far as black African nations have been
concerned, Mr. Young brought to the
United Nations a fresh appreciation of the
worth of darker-skinned peoples and a
long-delayed recognition of the equal dig
nity of all the member nations of the U.N.
as a world body.
When Andrew Young became U.S. Am
bassador to the United Nations, most of the
member nations still chafed under what
they had remembered as the “cool and
sophisticated racial arrogance” of United
Nations Ambassador Adlai Stevenson.
Stevenson —a former Democratic Party
presidential candidate —had made a strong
impression upon the American mind as a
man of bold liberal persuasion. But, as
Third World nations were to discover be
fore the backlash of the mid-1960’s by
black Americans toward what they per
ceived as a hollow and patronizing liberal
ism, Mr. Stevenson saw and treated blacks
of whatever rank in the world in almost the
Rudyard Kipling spirit, as “half-devil and
half-child.”
The negative American image and
impress was further strengthened by what
was seen as the racist antics and bufoonery
of Patrick Moynihan during his chaotic and
often notorious tenure as American Am
bassador to the United Nations. Perhaps
ironically, in the light of current events, it
was during the tenure of Arthur Goldberg,
a statesmanlike man of Jewish descent, that
black and Third World sentiments regard
ing the racial posture of the United States
took on some positive dimensions.
Have you given to Operation PUSH, OIC, SCLC, NAACPor the local Urban League this month?
The entry by former Ambassador An
drew Young into the world body brought
for the first time for the United States a
strong sense of positive commitment to
principles and policies of reciprocity and
mutual respect, and involving a truly global
view of world affairs.
During the period in which Mr. Young
represented the United States at the United
Nations, black Africa received the primary
and most immediate benefits of his almost
unique capacity to gain the attention of the
press. Only an oil crisis of earth-shattering
proportions and presidential involvement in
Egyptian-Israeli peace negotiations could
serve to shake black Africa from its place of
perceived primacy, brought about by Am
bassador Young.
Perhaps more than to any one figure has
credit been due to Mr. Young, for (1) a
generally increased nationwide respect in
America for the role of Africa in world
political and economic life, for (2) a fresh
and positive sensitivity to racism and the
denial of political rights especially embed
ded in southern Africa, and for (3) a per
ceived willingness by the United States—for
the first time in its membership in the Unit
ed Nations—to reckon with the United
Nations as a body to which it must pay at
least respectful deference.
These are major accomplishments. That
the United Nations representatives saw Mr.
Young as being by far the ablest American
diplomat to have worked among them at
the ambassadorial level was evident in the
massive outpouring of tributes to his global
influence given upon Mr. Young’s depar
ture from his U.N. post.
Black Americans perhaps need to be
deeply sensitive to the unquestioned fact
that world opinion sees in Andrew Young a
man of unmatched greatness as far as
Americans are concerned.
Q
At a meeting of world religious leaders
shortly before Mr. Young’s departure, the
positive tributes stood out—in marked con
trast to the “damning with faint praise” at
best of Mr. Young—so evident in the white
American press. It may be that the white
American daily press itself will be the loser.
That a hitherto suppressed controversy con
cerning blacks and the white daily press has
surfaced, and will continue for some time,
seems clear.
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Unfortunately, however, the Jewish
community in the United States has been
caught in the middle of this essentially
unhappy debate. But there may be some
crucially important positive elements. A
growing number of black leaders have
noted that black Americans may see, in
what has been described by the Jewish
community’s detractors as “Jewish domi
nance of the American media” a clear sug
gestion as to one possibly major means for
blacks to move, as with the Jewish com
munity, toward far greater power and peace
in our community, where outside domi
nance has had a tremendously negative
influence on black Americans.
□
As the months have passed since the
initial furor over the precise manner in
which Ambassador Andrew Young left his
United Nations office, American Jewish
opinion has begun to be increasingly posi
tive.
Perhaps most notable has been the ur
bane and peaceable voice of the venerable
international Jewish sage and statesman,
Arthur Hertzberg of Englewood, New
Jersey. A rabbinical leader without a pres
ent peer, Rabbi Hertzberg has literally
confronted the American Jewish establish
ment for its attitudes of non-supportiveness
or outright indifference, in many instances,
regarding black Americans.
••••••••••••••(Continued on page 6.)