The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is in the paradoxical position of performing most useful and necessary functions in the nascent world community but of giving very implausible reasons for the performance of its functions. Assistant Secretary of State George V. Allen, who was until recently responsible for the United States government's UNESCO policy, reported after the Paris UNESCO conference in 1949 that the organization “had a wider public support” and yet was “more widely criticized” than any other international agency. He rightly suggested that the criticisms were prompted by UNESCO enthusiasts who claimed too much for its functions and thus aroused the opposition of realists who did not believe that its contributions to peace were as important as the organization claimed.