UN Chronicle | The Chronicle Library Shelf: Yale-UN Oral History Project

The Chronicle Library Shelf
Yale-UN Oral History Project
By James Sutterlin and Jean Krasno

Article

The Yale-United Nations Oral History Project was undertaken to gain a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes on political and security issues by talking to people who participated in major events in which the United Nations was involved. The goal is to record the experiences of those in key positions and make their views and understanding of events available to scholars and the general public for study and analysis. Some of those interviewed have written books about their experiences, but in most cases the interviews are the only record of specific events from the interviewee's point of view.

The research for the oral history project is purposefully clustered around specific issues, such as the founding of the United Nations, the Middle East wars, the Congo during the 1960s, the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, El Salvador, Cambodia, Namibia, the Iran/Iraq war, and the work of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) to investigate and eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, plus other topics. A concerted effort was made to interview people with different points of view in order to maintain a balanced interpretation of events.

The project was conducted in two stages: the first part, from 1989 to 1991, within the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University, producing some 50 interviews; and the second, from 1996 until 2002, within the UN Studies at Yale, producing over 100 interviews. These were audiotaped, from which written transcripts were made. The interviewees were extremely cooperative, all believing that the United Nations is an extraordinary organization worthy of documentation, and each was asked to review the transcript and make any necessary corrections. The final versions, which include subject and name indexes and audio tapes, are on file at the UN Dag Hammarskjöld and Yale University libraries, where they are available for research purposes.

The advantage of an oral history is that many of those interviewed will never write down their experiences or, if they do, may not give the personal accounts which emerged from the more relaxed conversational method undertaken through oral interviews, and therefore, much of their first-hand knowledge would be lost. Many conversations and decisions are made informally and do not become part of the official record. This record, kept by the Government or the United Nations, may not include the behind-the-scene meetings, personal analyses and accounts, which are contained in the oral histories that may be the only source of certain information. For example, do you know when and how the UN logo was designed?

The disadvantage of oral personal accounts is that people's memories may fade after time or they may prefer to remember events in a manner more favourable to their points of view. All these issues must be taken into consideration when utilizing interviews for research purposes. Cross-referencing interviews on the same event and checking these against other historical accounts help in assessing accuracy. However, differing accounts are not always bad. It is important to keep in mind that different cultural perspectives can add to general understanding, and different perceptions by the parties involved are a part of the political context.

The series of interviews on UNSCOM were undertaken during the latter years of the project, and thus the experiences were still fresh in the minds of the interviewees. With only a few exceptions, we the authors conducted all UNSCOM interviews. In preparation, we carried out a substantial amount of research on the issue, which included a careful review of UN documents and publications, as well as books and articles written on the subject. For example, there was much valuable information on UNSCOM that had been gathered for the project which ought to be shared with the general public. Therefore, we decided to use these to prepare a book, which integrates experiences by many who participated directly in UNSCOM, interweaving their perspectives on many of the same events to create a rich tapestry. We have strived to synthesize the information and offer an analysis of events, motives, decisions and lessons learned, but in some cases the reader will have to judge what truth emerges.

We have also produced a film on the founding of the United Nations based on the material gathered from interviews with people who were involved in the writing of the UN Charter. We encourage other scholars to utilize the set of oral histories to write articles and books or to enrich their research and understanding of UN history and events.

Biographies

Jean Krasno (left) and James Sutterlin (right) hand over tapes and transcripts to Phyllis Dickstein (centre) of the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library

James S. Sutterlin, Distinguished Fellow in UN Studies and a lecturer at Yale University, is Director of the Yale-UN Oral History Project. He is also Director of Research and Adjunct Professor at the Long Island University Center for the Study of International Organizations.

Jean Krasno is Deputy Director of the Yale-UN Oral History Project, as well as an associate research scholar and lecturer in international relations.

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