ABSTRACT
In April 1945, as the wars in Europe and Asia drew to a close, delegates from around the globe gathered in San Francisco to lay the groundwork for a new international organization. During the previous eight years, over 48 million men, women, and children had died, intensive bombing had destroyed infrastructure throughout Asia and Europe, and desperate refugees had overrun cities of rubble. Even in many of the nations left relatively unscathed, the end of wartime economic restrictions and an eminent flood of demobilized veterans threatened rampant inflation and unemployment. Is it any wonder, therefore, that as the delegates conferred, economic issues and reconstruction remained close to the top of their agenda and figured prominently in the Charter they completed in June? Among its provisions, the Charter acknowledged in Article 55 that the “creation of conditions of stability and well-being . . . are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations among nations.” To that end, the members of this new United Nations pledged to “promote higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development.”
