4 minutes ago - PDF Capital of the World: The Race to Host the United Nations | From 1944 to 1946, as the world pivoted from the Second World War to an unsteady peace, Americans in more than two hundred cities and towns mobilized to chase an implausible dream The newlycreated United Nations needed a meeting place, a central place for global diplomacy8212 a Capital of the World But what would it look like, and where would it be? Without invitation, civic boosters in every region of the United States leapt at the prospect of transforming their hometowns into the Capital of the World The idea stirred in big cities8212 Chicago, San Francisco, St Louis, New Orleans, Denver, and more It fired imaginations in the Black Hills of South Dakota and in small towns from coast to coast Meanwhile, within the United Nations the search for a headquarters site became a debacle that threatened to undermine the organization in its earliest days At times it seemed the world8217 s diplomats could agree on only one thing: under no circumstances did they want the United Nations to be