Stati Uniti, Nazioni Unite e opinione pubblica americana negli anni dell’amministrazione Nixon

Abstract

The United States’ attitude toward international organizations is crucial for their success and survival. The support of Washington to such organizations is influenced by many international factors but also by domestic interests and especially the public opinion from the second half of the XX century. This article is going to specifically analyze how the Nixon administration used the public opinion feeling as part of its international strategy in respect to the United Nations. This was not the only administration to criticize the UN for both ideological and political reasons; however, it was the first to recognize the potential internal appeal that exploiting the frustration caused by the United Nations could have. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were aware and willing to exploit such negative feelings to gain as much political consensus as possible, and managed successfully to do so during the first mandate. Others made the same thing in the following years fostering the crisis between the organization and the US