ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book concentrates on implications plus the continuities running from the post-World War II era to the early twenty-first century. It delves into that problem which preoccupied millions of people in the war's aftermath: destruction. The book focuses on the postwar trials of Axis leaders, taking as its point of reference the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which ran simultaneously with the bulk of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration's (UNRRA) operations and the Acheson–Lilienthal effort. It focuses on the United Nations during its fledgling years, with attention placed on two of that organization's critical undertakings: stanching of the 1948 Israeli–Arab violence and the safeguarding of South Korea in 1950–1953. The book amounts to a change of gears and is perforce the most schematic. It traces the saga of UNRRA and Acheson–Lilienthal and their tandem Cold War fates.
