SAN FRANCISCO : Marking a Milepost
President Clinton and Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali will participate in ceremonies Monday celebrating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the U.N. Charter in the San Francisco Opera House.
The action by delegates from 50 countries prepared the way for the world body, which began operations soon after the charter was ratified in October, 1945.
The San Francisco conference almost ended in failure when the Americans and Soviets reached an impasse over the issue of the Security Council veto. The conference was saved when Harry Hopkins, adviser to the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt, came out of retirement and his sickbed to fly to Moscow and persuade Josef Stalin to accept the American position.
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