The struggle has been defined variously as rich v. poor, Southern Hemisphere v.
Northern, developed countries v. undeveloped. The protagonists are the advanced
industrial nations v. the nations of the
“Third World” , an extraordinarily
diverse group that, for the moment at least, has achieved solidarity
for what it sees as its common purpose. Conflict between the two groups
has taken on the proportions of global class war. This week the battleground is situated on the banks of the East River in
New York City, where a United Nations Special Session on Development
and International Economic Cooperation is assembling. The U.N. meeting
promises to be a pivotal event in the deepening confrontation between
the affluent and the newly combative poor. Undoubtedly, Third World
orators will restate what is quickly becoming their principal theme:
the poor nations have been ruthlessly exploited by the rich, thereby
causing many of the Third World's seemingly intractable development
problems; and the rich must now make a special effort to help the poor
countries catch up—by, among other things, paying high prices for
their products and increasing the level of their aid. Certainly, representatives of the industrialized “First World” will
reject much of the overblown rhetoric of the developing countries. Just
as certainly, the “Second World” of the Socialist countries will make a
show of complete support.* Nonetheless, the significance of the meeting
may very well lie in the fact that leaders of the industrial world are
likely to listen more attentively than ever before to reasonable Third
World demands. As Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told TIME'S
diplomatic editor Jerrold Schecter in the Middle East: “At the least we
must have a dialogue. We cannot be in isolation from nine-tenths of
humanity.” Last week Kissinger had gone through at least eight drafts
of a speech that will underscore the problems of the developing world
and, in an aide's words, “how we can move from rhetoric to problem
solving.” Although extended negotiations in the Middle East have forced
Kissinger to alter his plans for attending the session, his speech will
be delivered by recently appointed U.N. Ambassador David Moynihan.
Like Kissinger, Moynihan has long favored a comparatively hard-line
approach to the Third World, especially toward the latter's habit of
blaming the industrial world for many of its afflictions. In a
controversial article in Commentary magazine, Moynihan chided the less
developed nations for pursuing a “politics of resentment.”
