The United Nations headquarters in Manhattan — which is too far from any really decent race track-adjacent pastoral spas or the Adirondacks, if we can be blunt.

The Times Union's Oct. 4, 1945, editorial promoting Saratoga Springs as the site of the headquarters for the nascent United Nations.

As World War II came to an end eight decades ago, war-weary nations sought a new path to peace. Leaders understood that with the introduction of the atomic bomb, the next war could bring devastation so terrible that no nation could withstand it.

Dozens of countries settled on a plan to maintain peace through cooperation and dialogue: They would form a coalition committed to promoting mutual security and protecting human rights — one far more robust than the League of Nations, which had failed to head off the fight against fascism.

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In October 1945, after it was announced that the new organization’s headquarters would be established in the United States, the editorial board of the Times Union weighed in with an idea: The entity then known as the World Security League — soon to be called the United Nations — belonged in Saratoga Springs.

This ambitious idea........

© Times Union