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1. What was the purpose of the United Nations?

2. What role did Hull play in the formation of the United Nations?

3. Why was Cordell Hull given the Nobel Prize?

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The main body of the United Nations is called the General Assembly. Every member nation holds a seat in the General Assembly, which is often described as a town meeting for the world. The General Assembly has standing committees to address ongoing issues such as economics and finance, social, cultural and humanitarian concerns, and legal problems. The General Assembly passes resolutions and has the power to make recommendations to the Security Council, but has no power to require any action. In addition to the General Assembly, and Economic and Social Council has committees designed to address a wide array of topics from the Status of Women to the Environment

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The UN charter called for the establishment of a Security Council, or "upper house." The Security Council serves as the executive branch of the United Nations. The Security Council must authorize any actions, such as economic sanctions, the use of force, or the deployment of peacekeeping troops.

Each of the "Great Powers" — the United States, Great Britain, France, China, and the Soviet Union — holds a permanent seat on the Security Council. The remaining ten seats are elected to two-year terms by the General Assembly. Each permanent member holds the power of veto. No action can go forth if any one of the five objects. As the Cold War crystallized, the countervailing veto powers of the United States and the Soviet Union served often to inhibit the Security Council from taking any forceful or meaningful action.

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Hull was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his contributions to the formation of the United Nations. Due to failing health, he was unable to attend the occasion, but an acceptance speech was prepared by him and read in his honor.

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As the Laureate was unable to be present on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1945, the acceptance was read by Mr. Lithgow Osborne, ambassador of the United States to Norway

Your Majesty; Your Royal Highnesses; Your Excellencies, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Nobel Committee of the Storting.

I have the honor to accept, on behalf of my distinguished fellow-citizen, Mr. Cordell Hull, former Secretary of State and Father of the UNO, the Nobel Peace Prize for 1945.

I have been requested by Mr. Hull to read - on this occasion - the following message from him to the President and members of the Nobel Committee of the Storting:

As I have already informed you, the present state of my health renders impossible my presence at Oslo on this most memorable occasion. Nothing would have given me greater pleasure and satisfaction. Please let me assure you, however, that the keen disappointment and regret which I feel in this regard serve only to enhance my profound appreciation of the great honor which you have done me; and my sincere gratitude for your generous action.

The Nobel Peace Prize has come to occupy a very special place in the thoughts - and emotions of forward-looking humanity. It has become a supreme mark of distinction in the field of effort directed toward the attainment of man's highest aspiration - the establishment of enduring peace based on justice and fair-dealing for all. I am proud to join the company of those whom you have thus far so honored. The problem of peace is uppermost today/ in the hearts and minds of all of us, as the world emerges from the staggering ordeal of the most widespread and cruel war of all the ages. That war has brought with it a truly incredible development of means of destruction and a terrifying prospect of rapid and almost limitless development in that direction. Triumphant science and technology are only at the threshold of man's command over sources of energy so stupendous that, if used for military purposes, they can wipe out our entire civilization. Under the ominous shadow which the second World War and its attendant circumstances have cast on the world, peace has become as essential to civilized existence as the air we breathe is to life itself. There is no greater responsibility resting upon peoples and governments everywhere than to make sure that enduring peace will this time - at long last - be established and maintained. Fortunately, the war has brought with it not alone a stark realization of what another war would mean to the world, but as well the creation of an international agency through which the nations of the world can, if they so desire, make peace a living reality. Within a few weeks the organization for the maintenance of international peace and security, established by the San Francisco Charter, will be formally launched through the convocation of the first General Assembly of the United Nations. I fully realize that the new organization is a human rather than a perfect instrumentality for the attainment of its great objective. As time goes on it will, I am sure, be improved. The Charter is sufficiently flexible to provide for growth and development, in the light of experience and performance, but I am firmly convinced that with all its imperfections the United Nations Organization offers the peace-loving nations of the world, how, a fully workable mechanism which will give them peace, if they want peace. To be sure, no piece of social machinery, however well constructed, can be effective unless there is back of it a will and a determination to make it work. The crucial test for men and for nations today is whether or not they have suffered enough, and have learned enough, to put aside suspicion, prejudice and short-run and narrowly conceived interests and to unite in furtherance of their greatest common interest. That overwhelming and overshadowing common interest is enduring peace, within the frame-work of which man's newly found powers of science and technology can be used to raise to undreamed of heights the well-being of humanity. Alfred Nobel, were he alive today, would, I am sure, have joined with me in unshakeable faith that this crucial test will be met; that the searing lessons of this latest war and the promise of the United Nations Organization will be the cornerstones of a new edifice of enduring peace and the guideposts of a new era of human progress.

From Les Prix Nobel en 1945, Editor Arne Holmberg, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1946
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1945

To cite this page MLA style: "Cordell Hull - Acceptance Speech".
Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 18 Apr 2018. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1945/hull-acceptance.html>

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As the Laureate was unable to be present on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1945, the acceptance was read by Mr. Lithgow Osborne, ambassador of the United States to Norway Your Majesty; Your Royal Highnesses; Your Excellencies, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Nobel Committee of the Storting.

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Cordell Hull created four principles as a basis for negotiating with Japan:
1. Respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of each other and all nations. 2. Support of the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
3. Support of the principles of equality, including equality of commercial opportunities.
4. Non-disturbance of the status quo in the Pacific except as the status quo by altered peaceful means.

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An examination of the period between WWI and WWII showed a lack of commitment to the spirit of internationalism. The old League of Nations proved too weak in structure to fill this void. Cordell Hull's major effort during the later stages of World War II was  preparing a blueprint for an international organization dedicated to the maintenance of peace and endowed with sufficient legislative, economic, and military power to achieve it, which later became known as the United Nations.

The Big Three of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin had devoted hours of dialogue to the nature of a United Nations. After agreeing on the general principles at the Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta Conferences,  46 countries sent representatives to San Francisco to make plans for the United Nations. Hull served as an advisor for the American delegation. The United Nations was signed on June 26, 1945 and went into effect on October 24, 1945.

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Cordell Hull comes from humble beginnings. Born in a log cabin in the mountains of Pickett County, Tennessee, Hull was the third of five children. His father was a farmer and a lumber merchant, but Hull had greater aspirations. From a young age, he hoped to pursue a career in law. By the age of 20, he had become a practicing lawyer in the town of Celina, TN.

Having participated in political campaigning as a student, Hull decided to run for state legislature in 1893, and held various positions over the years. During the course of his career, Cordell Hull acted as a major political leader in the state of Tennessee before being elected into Congress, where he served as a U.S. Representative until 1931. From 1931-1937, Hull held the position of U.S. Senator, resigning when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him Secretary of State.

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https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1945/hull-facts.html
https://padlet.com/katie_puckett/43h83tro2zjt
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/PTO/Dip/4Principles.html