WASHINGTON [May 2, Kyodo News Service] ― The U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige on May 2 in a talk with Atsuko Toyama, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, who was visiting Washington, showed a positive attitude toward rejoining the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which the country had left in 1984 disapproving of the management and policy of the organization. He said, “We hope to return in the near future.”　It was made public by Minister Toyama in her press interview.　
　　　　　　　　　　　　 [May 4 morning edition of the Asahi, May 3 TV news of NHK, etc.]

　It has been already seventeen years since the United States withdrew from UNESCO.　Britain and Singapore followed suit, but Britain came back in 1997 under Prime Minister Tony Blair.　President Clinton told UNESCO in 1995 that he was prepared to restore American membership, and Koichiro Matsuura, since he was elected director general of UNESCO in the autumn of 1999, has been urging Washington to rejoin the organization.

　As those who are engaged in the nongovernmental UNESCO movement, we expect the United States to rejoin UNESCO as soon as possible.　We’d like all Americans to recall that the famous words in the preamble of the Constitution of UNESCO “since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed” are in fact the words polished by an American poet Archibald MacLeish.　Among the people who got together to establish UNESCO, MacLeish was one of the U.S. representatives.　We’d like Americans to remember with pride the greatness of the poet who, refining the draft that the British Prime Minister Clement Atlee had made quoting from “The General Epistle of James, Chapter 4” in the New Testament, expressed the idea in such a beautiful and lofty tone as a crystallized UNESCO spirit.　We’d like Americans to inherit that spirit.　Together with American friends we wish to recite and keep firmly in mind these beautiful words that will hopefully bring peace to the world.　We earnestly hope that the United States will fill as soon as possible the great void left for the past seventeen years that it has been out of UNESCO, and contribute to world peace.

The United States and UNESCO

Why did the United States withdraw from UNESCO? Some official documents of the United States explain the reasons as follows:

“For the past few years we have expressed our concern that UNESCO’s political and ideological emphasis and its budgetary and managerial tendency have harmed the efficiency of the organization. Such tendency, we must say, is far removed from the original principles of its Charter. We also feel that the organization has been serving the political goals of member nations rather than performing its international mission.”
　　　　　　　　　　　　(Main purport of the Notification of US Withdrawal from UNESCO / Dec. 12, 1984)

“(1) The decision to withdraw from UNESCO has been made by President Reagan on the recommendation of the Secretary of State. (2) The recommendation is based on the following observations: UNESCO has extraneously politicized virtually every subject it deals with, has exhibited hostility toward the basic institutions of a free society, especially a free market and a free press, and has demonstrated unrestrained budgetary expansion. (3) The Bureau of International Organization Affairs has undertaken “policy reviewing” on US - UNESCO relations, and we have come to the conclusion that continued US membership in UNESCO will not benefit the country.”

(Main purport of the statements made by US State Department / Dec. 29, 1984)

◎ Comment on the US State Department’s “Statement (2)“

Three reasons are given here. It is generally believed that politicization concerned itself with North-South problems, and that the United States, irritated at an increasingly powerful voice of African countries backed by the (former) Soviet Union, detested the typical “UNESCO politician”, the then director-general, Amadou Mahtar M’Bow. The second was the issue of a “New World Information and Communication Order” (NWICO). Even now an overwhelming majority of news is sent out to the world with the one-sided view of the West, yet the developing countries’ wish to have a voice has assumed a visible shape since the 1974 General Conference. The proposal of NWICO, partly due to strong opposition from the United States and other western countries, did not ripen into a concrete resolution. The third reason was UNESCO’s careless management. The United States, immediately after the withdrawal, dispatched its “auditing commission” who performed a thorough audit, yet they did not find any wrongdoing.

◎ US Attitude after the Withdrawal

The United States has an observer mission at UNESCO even after the withdrawal, and contributes necessary funding for UNESCO programs that the country is particularly interested in, such as World Heritage Preservation, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Man and the Biosphere Program, etc. However, following the cessation of financial contributions from the US to the UNESCO Secretariat (25 percent at the time of its withdrawal), Japan’s share has been increased.

◎ “Japan Should Withdraw, Too!”

After the US withdrawal from UNESCO some people suggested that Japan should withdraw, too. At the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO, we are told, a commission member representing nongovernmental UNESCO associations heard about this suggestion, and cooperating with other commission members, succeeded in keeping the country in UNESCO -- a story that we, who are engaged in nongovernmental activities of UNESCO, should keep in mind.

◎ Our Wish

We hope that the United States will rejoin UNESCO and contribute to world peace. We hope that with the US government returning to UNESCO, nongovernmental UNESCO activities in the United States, supported by the government and administrative organs, will become more and more active. We would like many people to share this wish and, joining hands, develop it into a big wish.