evidence: For all its flaws, the institution remains as relevant as ever "OH WHAT A great day this can be in history," enthused President Harry Truman in San Francisco on June 26th 1945, at the end of the conference that gave birth to the United Nations. Fifty countries had put aside their differences "in one unshakable unity of determination—to find a way to end wars." Seventy-five years on from the signing of its founding charter, the UN has proved durable. Its membership has grown to 193 through decolonisation and the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. It has moved into peacekeeping and humanitarian relief. There has been no new world war.