In These Times

About the author: In These Times is a left-wing journal of news and opinion.

A few Americans think that the United Nations threatens to take over the United States. Many others believe that the United States contributes too many troops and too much money to the U.N. Most of these critics, however, are misinformed and vastly overestimate the number of troops and the amount of money the United States gives to the U.N. When they are well informed, Americans support the U.N.'s goals of keeping the peace and promoting democracy.

After the United Nations was founded at the end of World War II, the idea of participating in an international organization as nominal equals with the Communist devil enraged right-wingers. For two decades the John Birch Society, the Cold War granddaddy...