For those of us who lived through the Cold War years in Dallas, this
book is a sometimes-painful journey through a past we would most like
to forget. For younger people, it fills in gaps in our local history that had
national and international dimensions. At the same time, it is a reminder
of the integrity, tenacity, and courage of the few brave souls who kept
faith in the sure knowledge that right will win out and whose leadership
has led us to a new day in our city--warts and all!
This is the story of the Dallas Chapter United Nations Association, long
overdue. Norma and Bill Matthews, both of whom are past presidents
of DUNA, have done a masterful job of probing the past, ferreting out
nuggets of history tucked into boxes and stashed away in family attics,
backroom nooks, and office storerooms. For much of the time since its
founding in 1953, DUNA has had no permanent home or office, and its
records have been at the mercy of whoever was its leader, always with
the possibility that succeeding generations of its founders would not
recognize the merits of those sealed boxes and would destroy them.
Using endless newspaper files, mostly from the Dallas Morning News and
some from the late Dallas Times Herald and Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
the Matthews writing team has been able to follow the founding,
development, and leadership of DUNA, vastly enriched by
personal stories of individuals who kept the flame alive in good times
and bad.
Norma and Bill Matthews teamed their professional degrees in
education, communication, music, and theology to serve as volunteer
activists for human rights and peace endeavors. Married 63 years, and
retiring as teacher and minister, they committed themselves to research
and preserve the history of advocacy for support of sustainable goals of
individual and universal dignity and freedom.
