Hal Needham Quotes
'Megaforce' is a privately financed army of freedom fighters financed and manned by all the free countries of the world. We don't say the force is American-based, but it's obvious because they are driving Fords, encountering rattlesnakes and they ride a Continental Airlines plane. Also the landscape looks like the American desert.
Needham, Hal. Interview by Robert Lindsey. The New York Times, 11 July 1982, p. 15.
He was referring to NATO in Post WWII Europe.
The United States, as the world’s wealthiest nation, paid then for more than 50% of the UN budget.
One major problem at the time was that the Soviet Union was supporting and instigating revolutions in many parts of the world. When most nations of the UN wanted to provide peace keeping troops to quell the conflict, the Russians would veto and block the effort, Vandenberg wanted the UN to change the rules regarding the veto. The original right of veto for the major nations was originally included at the insistence of the United States and many Americans did not want to give it up or have any exceptions lest there be more. The Russians at that time also did not want to give up any of their veto powers. Another method that Vandenberg wanted to solve the Russian peacekeeping blockage problem was for America to engage in more collective security pacts so that action could be taken without UN Security Council unanimity by going around the UN.
This was a very important statement for the President to make. At the time there was a very conservative right wing that was advocating withdrawing from the UN or at the very least not paying such a large share of the UN funds for operation.
In a NATO military operation, there is one NATO Supreme Commander but each nation has a minister for NATO. All significant decisions must be consented to be this group. But each of those is a representative of a different political government. Clark was masterful at this diplomatic side of the war just as Dwight Eisenhower was in WWII. Eisenhower had bigger egos to content with—Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, De Gaulle, but Clark had many more counties who could each veto actions.
The Secretary General was informed of the North Korean attack on South Korea:
The speech was the 50th Anniversary of the Speech that Secretary of State Byrne had given there exactly 50 years ago. It was referred to as the “Speech of Hope” and announced the Marshall Plan.
Hal Brett Needham was an American stuntman, film director, actor and writer. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with actor Burt Reynolds, usually in films involving fast cars, such as Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, The Cannonball Run and Stroker Ace. In his later years, Needham moved out of stunt work, and focused his energy on the World Land Speed Record project. In 2001, Needham received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Taurus World Stunt Awards, and in 2012, he was awarded a Governors Award by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
