"...to practice the arts of peace": Other United Nations Missions

Ralph Bunche returned to his trusteeship duties following his mission in Palestine. In 1952 Secretary-General Trygve Lie announced that he was stepping down; his replacement, Dag Hammarskjöld, undertook a reorganization of the Secretariat that resulted in Bunche’s appointment as an undersecretary general for special political affairs. In the ensuing years Bunche coordinated and administered peacekeeping efforts in troubled regions around the world, including the Congo, Yemen, and Cyprus.

In June 1960 Bunche traveled to the Congo. Formerly a Belgian colony, the Congo achieved full independence on June 30, 1960, and he went to represent the U.N. at independence day ceremonies, to help the country apply for U.N. membership, and to assess what assistance the U.N. could provide to the new administration. However, years of Belgian rule with little involvement by the Congolese left the country ill-prepared for independence, and within the first two weeks of July, troops mutinied, the president and prime minister dismissed each other, and the country’s richest province attempted to secede.

In a letter to his son written on July 8, Bunche conveyed the uncertain, rapidly deteriorating situation: "The way things have been here all day today and are going tonight, I cannot be sure when I can mail this letter to you. In truth, I cannot be positive at this moment if I ever will be able to mail it." He noted, "Wouldn’t it be ironic, though, if I should now get knocked around here in the very heart of Africa because of anti-white feeling -- the reason being that I am not dark enough and might be mistaken for a ‘blanc’!" In spite of his fears, he concluded on a reassuringly domestic subject: "Please do your best on the lawn for me. Is it keeping up?"

At an emergency meeting on July 14, the Security Council authorized U.N. operations in the Congo. Peacekeeping troops began to arrive on July 15, and Bunche was placed in charge. He remained in the country until the end of August.

Bunche's involvement continued for another year during talks organized by the U.N. and the United States, which resulted in an agreement between the seceding provinces and the central government in late 1961. However, problems continued to plague the country even after reconciliation, and one of the casualties of the conflict was Hammarskjöld, who died on September 17, 1961, in a plane crash on his way to meet with one of the leaders to try to end the fighting.

In 1963 U.N. Secretary-General U Thant sent Bunche to Yemen on a fact-finding mission to investigate a conflict between royalist and republican forces in Yemen. Following the death of the imam the previous year, an army rebellion had overthrown the royalist government and established the Yemen Arab Republic. The republican government was being supported by Egypt, which had sent troops to Yemen at the republicans' request, while the royalist forces were being supported by Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The U.N. Yemen Observation Mission was then sent in to supervise the withdrawal of Egyptian troops and the cessation of Saudi aid to the royalists; when that proved ineffective, the secretary-general appointed a special representative to continue negotiations, although the Egyptian government did not fully withdraw its forces until after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

On September 20, 1963, President John F. Kennedy came to address the U.N. General Assembly. During his campaign Kennedy had asked Bunche to serve as an advisor, and he had also been asked several times to become a part of the administration; although he declined all these invitations, Bunche admired Kennedy a great deal and was deeply saddened by his assassination. He learned in October 1963 that Kennedy had selected him as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest honor a civilian can receive from the U.S. government. The presentation ceremony went ahead as planned on December 6, 1963, following Kennedy’s assassination, with President Lyndon B. Johnson awarding the medals. Bunche was the first UCLA alum to receive this honor.

In 1964 Bunche organized a U.N. peacekeeping force sent to Cyprus. This island nation had achieved independence from Britain in 1960, but although its constitution was designed to balance the interests of the Greek Cypriot majority and the Turkish Cypriot minority, violent conflict had arisen between the two groups. When the efforts of a British peacekeeping force failed, representatives of both Britain and Cyprus brought the problem to the U.N. Security Council.

Bunche himself visited Cyprus in April 1964. He checked on the peacekeeping forces and met with Makarios III, president of Cyprus, and Fazil Kuçuk, leader of the Turkish Cypriots. He also traveled to various areas of the island and saw the devastation of the conflict firsthand, including homeless families and destroyed dwellings.

Bunche feared that the problems in Cyprus would take a long time to resolve; his assessment proved prescient. On Friday, February 13, 2004, the U.N. announced that the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders had agreed to Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plan to reunify the country. However, in separate, simultaneous referenda on April 24, 2004, Greek Cypriots rejected the plan, while Turkish Cypriots approved it. As of the date this page was updated, the country remains divided.

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Last updated: April 29, 2005