Adlai Stevenson vs. Valerian Zorin
Uploaded by richjay14uscrgj on Jun 24, 2007
Adlai Stevenson vs. Valerian Zorin
In times of crisis and difficult political situations these two men stood tall and strong for their country to ensure peace for the people of this world. Adlai Stevenson of the United States and Valerian Zorin of the Soviet Union eventually went head to head in a session of the United Nations Security Council, but both had great political careers serving as ambassadors for two countries on opposite sides of the Cold War spectrum prior to that encounter. Khrushchev had not instructed Zorin to change his position of not being truthful to the Security Council about the missiles in Cuba. That would play out to be a key flaw in the Soviet plans to continue the construction of missile sites in Cuba. That one flaw caused the collapse of the Soviet operations in Cuba and ended Khrushchev’s time as their Premier because of the end result that the missiles had to be withdrawn.
In the days before the encounter Zorin had denied the existence of the weapons. Then the day of the encounter between the two Zorin offered a statement that the weapons in Cuba do not even exist. The Americans assumed that Zorin was not aware that Americans knew the weapons existed and that the Soviet’s Foreign Ministry had not told Zorin to adjust his position. The result of that breakdown was the Soviet Union was now in position where the world began to question their credibility. The blame should not be solely placed on Zorin. The real culprit was the Soviet Union as a whole because Zorin only presented to the United Nations what he was instructed to present. That was one of Zorin’s final debates while being the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations and it was unfortunate that he was misinformed by his country in such a crucial time.
Adlai was not even close to winning the United Nations Security Council debate as well as the support of the world at the beginning of the session. United States President, John F Kennedy told his assistants to tell Adlai to stick it to Zorin and don’t let him off. Well the assistants did not have faith in Adlai at all, but the special assistant mentioned that you can’t Adlai out this late, he knows the score and how much time is left in the game. Adlai entered the room of the Security Council...