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was really no need to charge the United Nations.

However, Richardson's statement about "non-blue-helmeted" operations is

significant and revealing in other ways. By making an often artificial distinction between

blue-helmet and non-blue-helmet missions, the administration disguises the reality that the

number of troops in the latter operations has exploded in recent years. The administration

seeks UN reimbursement for blue-helmet operations (i.e., the few hundred U.S. troops

wearing UN blue berets and UN shoulder patches, operating under UN command, mostly

in Macedonia) while it demands that the Congress pay for all non-blue-helmet operations

(the tens of thousands of U.S. troops wearing U.S. uniforms and under U.S. command

who nevertheless implement UN Security Council resolutions). That arrangement enables

the administration to provide massive subsidies for UN operations, which dwarf regular

payments to the world body, by sending the bill to Congress. Today, however, Congress

is finally balking at paying the bill.

Violating the UN Participation Act

The United Nations Participation Act, passed in 1945 for the purpose of regulating

U.S. involvement with the United Nations, was designed to make it very difficult for the

president to assign troops to serve the United Nations without prior congressional

approval. It gives the president the limited authority to assign up to 1,000 U.S. military

personnel to a Chapter VI UN mission. Even that limited authority applies only if the U.S.

government can show that the mission in question is not a Chapter VII operation, which

requires congressional approval.32 Chapter VI missions are noncombatant in nature.

As late as March 1997, the Department of Defense claimed in a public document

that there were only 522 U.S. personnel deployed under the auspices of the U.N.

Participation Act or the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act. In all such situations--involving UN

"operational control" of the troops--the Pentagon asserted that "the UN is paying the bill."

Of the 522 personnel, 489 were assigned to the so-called UN Preventive Deployment in

Macedonia.33

The Macedonia Mission and an Important Legal Challenge

Even in the case of the Macedonia operation, how-

ever, the Clinton administration may have violated the law. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-

Ky.) has argued convincingly that the deployment to Macedonia lacks "a clear, legal man-

date" because the administration falsely claimed it was a Chapter VI mission that did not

require congressional approval. McConnell points out that no UN Security Council

resolution relating to Macedonia or the former Yugoslavia mentions a Chapter VI

mandate. Instead, UN resolutions identify the operations in that region of the world as

coming under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, requiring the explicit approval of

Congress.34