Editing Kofi Annan (section)

=== Relations between the United States and the UN ===
[[File:Rice and Annan.jpg|thumb|Annan with US secretary of state [[Condoleezza Rice]] in 2006]]
Annan defended his deputy secretary-general [[Mark Malloch Brown]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/08/AR2006060801744_pf.html|title=Annan Backs Deputy in Dispute With U.S.|date=8 June 2006|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=29 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110044359/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/08/AR2006060801744_pf.html|archive-date=10 November 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> who openly criticised the United States in a speech on 6 June 2006: "[T]he prevailing practice of seeking to use the UN almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable. You will lose the UN one way or another. [...] [That] the US is constructively engaged with the UN [...] is not well known or understood, in part because much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as [[Rush Limbaugh]] and [[Fox News]]."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/dsgsm287.doc.htm|title=UN needs US, US needs UN to face challenges – HIV/AIDS, SUDAN – that defy national solutions, says Deputy Secretary-General in New York address|access-date=12 December 2006|last=Brown|first=Mark Malloch|author-link=Mark Malloch Brown|date=6 June 2006|publisher=United Nations |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061211111010/http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/dsgsm287.doc.htm|archive-date=11 December 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> Malloch later said his talk was a "sincere and constructive critique of U.S. policy toward the U.N. by a friend and admirer".<ref name=AssociatedPress />

The talk was unusual because it violated the unofficial policy of not having top officials publicly criticise member nations.<ref name=AssociatedPress /> The interim US ambassador [[John Bolton]], appointed by President [[George W. Bush]], was reported to have told Annan on the phone: "I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior UN official that I have seen in that entire time."<ref name=AssociatedPress>{{cite news|title=Speech by U. N. Leader Draws Angry Response From US|url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198535,00.html|agency=Associated Press|date=7 June 2006|access-date=12 December 2006|work=Fox News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070211012932/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198535,00.html|archive-date=11 February 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> Observers from other nations supported Malloch's view that conservative politicians in the US prevented many citizens from understanding the benefits of [[United States and the United Nations|US involvement in the UN]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=CNN – Transcripts|url=https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cnr/date/2006-12-11/segment/03|access-date=2022-04-05|work=CNN|date=2006-12-11|archive-date=25 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725032212/https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cnr/date/2006-12-11/segment/03|url-status=live}}</ref>