| In defense of Kofi Annan
6/20/2004 REGARDING THE letter last Monday criticizing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan ("The United Nations is in decline"): The United Nations has made a few mistakes and many positive achievements under the leadership of Annan. He has admitted the UN's failure to intervene in Bosnia and Rwanda and is in the process of deciding a course of action in Sudan. In the summer of 1998 I was one of the organizers of the Vermont Walk for Nuclear Abolition to which we invited Annan to speak. He sent a telegram, which in part, stated: "We hear a great deal of talk today about life in the global village. If this village is to be a truly desirable place for all of us on this planet, it must be guided by shared values and principles. The United Nations is committed to giving voice to those values and principles. None is more important than that of disarmament and peace. To quote the United Nations Charter, `Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that defenses of peace must be constructed.' Individuals in groups like yourselves are living proof of what can be achieved through global people power building those defenses of peace." Harvard University's award of an honorary degree to this great man gave him a forum to express the feeling of global people power as he criticized the United States for its use of a preemptive attack on the people of Iraq. Most of the world's people, including many in the United States, echo his opinion. The United Nations is the only possible force for worldwide peace. It needs the wholehearted support of the United States to achieve that goal. JOHN RADEBAUGH This story ran on page D10 of the Boston Globe on 6/20/2004.
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