Much of the literature, scholarly and journalistic, about certain aspects of the United Nations operation in the Congo has been marked by the twin short. comings of a lack of authentic information on the one hand and the ignoring of such information, even where it is readily available, on the other.

There is not much that can be done for the time being about the lack of information, especially in view of the confidential relationship of the United Nations Secretariat with Member States, which inevitably means that the Secretary-General's position often to some extent goes by default before public opinion. This is a pity, but the Secretariat obviously could not operate if governments could not rely on its discretion, which they are entitled to take for granted.