The Foreign Service Journal, September 2020

60 SEPTEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL and above all, the right to walk with dignity on the world’s great boulevards.” To understand the principle of self-determination is to under- stand Ralph Bunche’s later work as chief of the United Nations Trusteeship Division. There, he would oversee the establishment of the U.N. Trusteeship Council and guide the work of the Fourth Committee, which was responsible for decolonization matters. At the State Department There was one more important step in Ralph Bunche’s journey to the United Nations. In 1945, he joined the State Department as associate chief of the Division of Dependent Area Affairs, appointed in a professional position to advise and participate with the U.S. delegation in the design of the trusteeship man- dates within the U.N. Charter. This was precisely where Bunche’s preparation and expertise lay, as Larry Finkelstein has said so elo- quently. But as a junior officer dealing with decisions about post– World War II territories and colonial mandates that had already been made, he had two arms and a leg tied from the start. The British had been adamant about this issue, so there were firm “understandings” on their role. And there was intermittent warfare going on with the War Office (Department of the Army) and Department of Navy on what to do with the post–World War II South Pacific territories, on which there would be absolutely no movement for the sake of preserving forward military bases. So, in a few words, not only did he not have a blank check, he had no blank slate on which to write. Though serving in a relatively junior posi- tion, he nonetheless had an unusual oppor- tunity as a young diplomat to play a part in stirring events. During Bunche’s first months at State, his immediate supervisor, Benjamin Gerig, attended most of the policymaking meetings. But Bunche served as “assignment secretary” with the American delegation to the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944, where a draft of the United Nations Charter was agreed on. This insider experience served Bunche well for later positions of responsibility undertaking more challenging roles in the absence of his overtasked supervisor, Gerig. Here Bunche’s competence began making its mark, starting with the negotiations between the State and Interior Departments, on the one hand, and No decision was formally made to authorize the U.S. delegation to introduce the document Bunche had so diligently drafted en route to San Francisco. Ralph J. Bunche of the U.N. Secretariat (at right) and Benjamin Gerig of the United States (at left) discuss a point at a meeting of a subcommittee of the United Nations’ Fourth Committee (the Special Political and Decolonization Committee of the U.N. General Assembly), on Dec. 4, 1946, in Lake Success, New York. Both were members of the Fourth Committee. UNITEDNATIONS Bunche’s conclusion that the real goals of colonialismwere economic in motivation and had nothing to do with “people not yet able to stand by themselves” (as per League of Nations Article 22) strengthened his belief that self-determination was the only legitimate standard for government of the colonial African countries. In his view, colonialism could never meet that stan- dard unless the people of a colony, themselves, chose a colonial regime as an act of “self-determination.” As Bunche said in a 1942 talk at the Institute of Pacific Rela- tions conference in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec: “Schemes of inter- national organizations … these are all means and not ends. …The real objective must always be the good life for all of the people … peace, bread, a house, adequate clothing, education, good health,