a policy of total sanctions against the people of Iraq under Saddam Hussein and then launched a military attack against the country. The misuse of the UN machinery by the great powers for their own purposes, the writer says, is evidence among others of the growing pains that the world organization has experienced since its creation some 50 years ago and that are still with us. In the political area, its promising beginnings have only exceptionally met the expectations of our generation. In a highly personalized memoir Bernander tells of his boyhood in Zimbabwe, his student years in Gothenburg, Sweden, of people he has met and of his experiences in the service of the United Nations. These accounts, expressing at times controversial viewpoints, are interlaced with reporting from his stint as foreign editor of a Gothenburg daily 1958-62 and with essay type features.

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