Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part-V-B-4-Book-I.djvu/138

Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011  meet resistance in the General Assembly, perhaps led by such permanent members of the Security Council as France and the Soviet Union.

(d) Proceedings in the Council are more manageable, and it would be relatively easier to secure majority agreement on a satisfactory text. If the USSR should veto, this same text could then be introduced in the Assembly, with probable avoidance of a difficult many-powered negotiation.

A resolution providing for the dispatch of a United Nations observer group would be likely to receive the support of seven or more members of the Security Council. Nevertheless, its passage could be prevented by the negative vote of one of the permanent members of the Council. The Soviet Union would be likely to veto such a resolution. Then the processes of the General Assembly could be invoked to deal with the question, pursuant to the Uniting for Peace Resolution. Action in the Assembly would presumably be undertaken on the basis of the draft resolution which failed of adoption in the Security Council. Under Article 18 (2) of the Charter, questions involving recommendations with respect to the maintenance of peace and security are important questions requiring a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting in the General Assembly. In the case of a request by Vietnam for United Nations observers, such a majority could probably be secured in support of a resolution providing for the dispatch of a United Nations Observer Group. Rh