The Philippines and the United Nations

SEVENTY-NINE years ago, on Oct. 24, 1945, the United Nations was born after a devastating World War, the second in the history of mankind.

There is a famous story on its birth that I thought may have been apocryphal, until I actually read the primary source: "Sen. Warren Austin of the US delegation was chairman of the committee designing the official seal. A proposed design was sent round to all heads of delegations while we were still in San Francisco. When I saw it, I promptly went to see Senator Austin to complain. 'The Philippines is not on the world map'! 'But, General,' Senator Austin explained, 'your country is too small. We can't put every country on this seal. Don't you realize that if we tried to include the Philippines on a map of this scale, it would be nothing more than a dot'? 'All right,' I said. 'Give us the dot'!"