stylistic:tone, information:highlighting, information:extraction, structural:reformatting
Relations between the United States and the UN

Annan defended his deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch Brown, who openly criticised the United States in a speech on 6 June 2006: "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. 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." Malloch later said his talk was a "sincere and constructive critique of U.S. policy toward the U.N. by a friend and admirer".

The talk was unusual because it violated the unofficial policy of not having top officials publicly criticise member nations. 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." Observers from other nations supported Malloch's view that conservative politicians in the US prevented many citizens from understanding the benefits of US involvement in the UN.