Date:    Tue, 28 Apr 1998 05:55:11 EDT
<br>From:    Bapopik <Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
<br>Subject: United Nations (an Americanism!)
<br>
<br>      The "euro" people are taking great pains not to offend any European
<br>country by using one language or symbol instead of another.
<br>      The "United Nations" or "U. N.," however, is a different story.  It's an
<br>Americanism!
<br>       OED's entry is abysmal.  (I swear that I don't make these things up to
<br>anger Fred Shapiro.)  The first citation is, of course, British:
<br>
<br>1942 _Daily Tel._ 28 Jan. 3/3 But at any rate it will be long enough for Japan
<br>to inflict...losses upon all of the United Nations who have...possession in
<br>the Far East.
<br>
<br>      The United Nations is defined "in the war of 1939-45, the Allied nations
<br>who united against the Axis powers; hence, an international peace-seeking
<br>organization of these and many other States, founded by charter in 1945 (in
<br>full, _United Nations Organization_)."
<br>      "United Nations" was indexed by both the 1942 Reader's Guide and the New
<br>York Times Index.  This Associated Press story made at least a hundred
<br>newspapers and is in the New York Times, 3 January 1942, pg. 4, col. 2:
<br>
<br>_Term 'United Nations'_
<br>      _Selected by Roosevelt_
<br>  WASHINGTON, Jan. 2--The countries battling Axis powers were officially
<br>designated today as the "united nations."
<br>  They so described themselves in the pact in which they promised to make no
<br>separate peace with their enemies.
<br>  The designation, it was learned, was the result of long thought by President
<br>Roosevelt.  He had been working night and day on the pact, and he pondered the
<br>designation "united nations" until 2:30 Wednesday morning.
<br>  He wanted an adequate description, it was understood, which would avoid
<br>calling the signatories the "associated" or "allied" powers.
<br>  During the last World War when these latter terms were used, it was
<br>recalled, there was some opposition to alignment with any foreign powers.
<br>
<br>      The "Declaration by United Nations" in "the struggle for victory over
<br>Hitlerism.  Done at Washington, January First, 1942" made the front page of
<br>just about every newspaper everywhere.  Newsweek of 12 January 1942 had on
<br>pages 19- 21:  "United Nations Gear Strategy to Closing In on Axis Powers."
<br>Time had a story on 19 January 1942, pages 13-14:
<br>
<br>   FOREIGN RELATIONS
<br>_The United Nations_
<br>   A new phrase, the United Nations, slipped into the world's vocabulary.
<br>Editorial writers and military commentators used it glibly.  And last week
<br>they began to wonder what, exactly, it meant--that pact by which 26 nations
<br>bound themselves fortnight ago not to make a separate peace with their Axis
<br>enemies.
<br>
<br>      The New York Times, 11 January 1942, Section IV, pg. 7, col. 7, had this
<br>letter:
<br>
<br>_EXPRESSION:  Use Approved_
<br>   In his message to Congress the President used many times the term "United
<br>Nations."  What a stirring expression!  Let's hope it will still be used after
<br>the war is over and at the peace table.--
<br>PHYLLIS KOEMA, Woodside, N. Y.
<br>
<br>      This historical record of the origin of "United Nations"--an
<br>Americanism--should be properly recorded.
<br>