THE U.N. CHARTER--50 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE (Senate - June 27, 1995) Mr. DODD. Mr. President, yesterday, June 26, 1995, marked the 50 -year anniversary of the signing of the U.N. Charter . To commemorate the event, President Clinton traveled to San Francisco to participate in ceremonies at the very site where representatives of some 50 nations first gathered to hammer out that historic document.

Mr. President, I believed that President Clinton spoke for all of us yesterday when he said:

Today we honor the men and women who gave shape to the United Nations. We celebrate 50 years of achievement. We commit ourselves to real reforms. We reject the siren song of the new isolationists. We set a clear agenda worthy of the visions of our founders. The measure of our generation will be whether we give up because we cannot achieve a perfect world or strive on to build a better world.

In recalling that historic day, President Clinton reminded listeners as well that, `The 50 nations who came here * * * to lift the world from the ashes of war * * * included giants of diplomacy and untested leaders of infant nations. They were separated by tradition, race and language, sharing only a vision of a better safer future.' It was that shared vision, in the final analysis, that made it possible to set aside differences, grievances and suspicions. It was that shared vision that empowered conference participants to craft a charter that President Truman described as, `a declaration of great faith by the nations of the Earth--faith that war is not inevitable, faith that peace can be maintained.' I believe that all freedom loving peoples of the world continue to share that same faith and vision today.

Much has transpired since that day, in 1945, when the 50 founding nations of the United Nations pledged their faith and cooperation in this new world organization. Today, the U.N. family has grown nearly fourfold to 184 member states. Many of the old threats to peace have receded only to be replaced by new and more intractable ones. And, despite the many criticisms leveled against the United Nations, member states have largely heeded the words expressed by President Truman, in speaking about the charter that had just been signed, `You have created a great instrument for peace and security and human progress in the world. The world must now use it'.

Much has been accomplished by the United Nations during its first 50 years . Even its severest critics have to acknowledge that during the cold war, the United Nations served to mitigate the ideological conflict between East and West that threatened the world with nuclear chaos. It also smoothed the path for new nation states seeking to break with old, outdated colonial empires.

The United Nation's various affiliate agencies have served to make the world a better place to live. The world health organization, to mention but one, has been a major player in the world-wide campaign to eradicate smallpox, measles, polio, and other dreaded but preventable diseases. The accomplishments of the United Nations have been recognized and honored by the world community. On four separate occasions, U.N. activities and agencies have been recipients of Nobel peace prizes--the blue helmet peacekeepers, the U.N. Children's Fund, the U.N. Office of High Commissioner for Refugees.

Clearly the world is a different place than it was 50 years age. The acts of aggression and threats to peace once posed by the East/West conflict have been replaced by a growing number of equally bedeviling ethnic rivalries, civil wars and humanitarian calamities throughout the globe. The demands on the United Nations for policing these conflicts, for marshaling humanitarian aid, for dispensing economic and social services in response to these events, have grown geometrically--and so too have the financial costs associated with them.

Some of the criticism leveled against the United Nations have been unfair. In the final analysis, the United Nations is only as strong and decisive as its membership. In the final analysis it can only continue to undertake activities that its membership is