Robert Muller 's Good Morning World

When I joined the UN after World War II, I was a very pessimistic young man. Having seen the horrors committed between two highly civilized, white, advanced countries, France and Germany; having had a grandfather who had five successive nationalities due to three wars (French, German, French, German and French again) without leaving his village; having had a father who was twice a French soldier and once a German soldier; having seen half of my cousins in French and the other half in German uniforms, with the possibility that they might kill each other.

I wondered how a world of black and whites, of communists and capitalists, of poor and rich, of 5000 languages, 2000 religions, so many nations and ethnic groups would ever make it without another world war. In my view such a war would break out in less than twenty years.

Today, in 2002, I am an optimist who is convinced that humanity will succeed and that we have a great, incredible third millennium before us. What was achieved by the United Nations during the past fifty-five years, would have seemed inconceivable to me in 1945.

I have told the story of my growing optimism and offered my ideas in numerous books, articles and speeches. I have done my duty as one of the first world servants during an entire adult life in the first universal, global organization of this planet, the United Nations. I thank God for having given me that privilege and opportunity.