Even if the United Nations is unsuccessful in its effort to force Iraq out of Kuwait peacefully, the crisis in the Persian Gulf should allow the UN to shed its image as a political punching bag and as a stage for angry, dissonant voices. It can emerge as a strong and credible institution that will live up to the expectations of the visionaries who established it.

Since its founding at the end of World War II, the UN has been an international repository of unfulfilled promise and latent potential.

The world body did not end the Cold War, but instead was victimized by it. The Security Council, theoretically capable of bold and aggressive action in the pursuit of peace, was for 45 years locked in frigid stalemate by the veto power of its five permanent members.

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev began the thaw in 1988 with his assurance that his country would adopt a new approach to council business in pursuing the objectives of the charter. Put to the test this summer on the Iraqi invasion, the Soviets and the Security Council responded admirably and the U.N. General Assembly acted with a promptness and a forcefulness that was startling.

The United Nations’ condemnation of the Iraqi invasion, and its subsequent economic blockade backed by a truly representative international military presence have, after four decades of false starts and frustration, offered the UN an opportunity to confront its institutional destiny.

Thus far, it has more than been up to the task.