The Debate | Opinion | Southeast Asia

The United Nations, U Thant, and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

U.N. Secretary-General U Thant (right) confers with Jose Rolz-Bennett, U.N. deputy chef de cabinet, and other officials during a session of the U.N. Security Council in New York, Sep. 3, 1963.

“What is the use of a fire brigade which vanishes from the scene as soon as the first smoke and flames appear?” asked Abba Eban, addressing an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly soon after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War had ended.

In a fiery speech, the foreign minister of Israel lashed out at the U.N. for pulling peacekeeping troops out of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip.  The “disastrously swift” withdrawal, Eban argued, had endangered the “national survival” of the Jewish state.

Israel’s Six-Day War was nevertheless a spectacular military success. The Israel Defense Forces neutralized three Arab armies (Egypt, Jordan, and Syria) within a week and occupied the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.

In his latest book, “Peacemaker,” historian Thant Myint-U offers new insights on the U.N.’s role in the events leading up to the six-day conflict.

The book’s title refers to U Thant, the author’s grandfather. As U.N. secretary-general, the Burmese diplomat was the chief “firefighter” charged with deploying peacekeeping troops to conflict zones.  The “most successful peacekeeping operation” was UNEF (United Nations Emergency Force), which had maintained a fragile peace along the border between Egypt and Israel for more than a decade.

When the Egyptian military sent the U.N. an informal communication in mid-May requesting a withdrawal of peacekeeping troops, Thant faced a dilemma. Denying Cairo’s request would violate Egypt’s sovereignty, but removing the forces might jeopardize the U.N.’s conflict-prevention mission.  The Secretary-General acquiesced after receiving an official letter from the foreign minister.  However, as Thant was negotiating UNEF’s exit, Israeli jets strafed a convoy in the Egyptian-administered Gaza Strip, killing three soldiers.

Thant faced “a deluge of criticism” for the troop withdrawal and for his inability to counter “Egyptian bluster.”  Former British Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home called the Secretary-General’s visit to Egypt in late May a “dreadful mistake.” When Thant landed in Cairo, President Gamal Abdel Nasser was already in war mode, having closed the Straits of Tiran, a vital shipping route for Israel.  A Western diplomat quoted in The Wall Street Journal called the U.N. chief “a tower of........

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