YouSaid · the spoken record

Shen

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63
first
1961-09-24
most recent
1964-09-24
sittings or episodes
2
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un-general-debate

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  1. “As the world situation stands today, there are only two roads—either to support capitalism or to support socialism—and there is no third road. Any vain hope to take on a third road: is doomed to failure." 77. It is thus clear that neutralism is anathema to the Communists. Within their own camp, neutralism is equated with counter-revolution. In the eyes of the Kremlin the greatest crime committed by Imre Nagy was his declaration that the Hungarian Government was about to pursue a policy of neutralism and that he had dared to request the General Assembly of the United Nations to place the question of Hungary's neutrality on its agenda. 78. The Communists have thus no more love for neutralism than they have for capitalism. Yet, as a matter of tactics, they do not hesitate to recommend neutralism to countries on the fringe of communist power.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  2. “I may say in passing that the Communists do not in fact believe there is such a thing as neutralism. Mao Tse-tung, chieftain of Chinese Communism, declared in his book ``On People's Democratic Dictatorship": ...the Chinese people must incline either toward the side of imperialism or to that of Socialism. There can be no exception to this rule. It is impossible to sit in the fence..." "Not only in China but throughout the world, without exception, one inclines either toward imperialism or toward Socialism. Neutrality is merely a camouflage; a third road does not exist." 76. In the New Terminology Dictionary published by the Chinese Communists, the term "neutralist line" is defined as follows: "This is a day-dream and can never be realized. Even its theory is not correct.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  3. “On an issue involving the very existence of the United Nations, there can be no neutralists or bystanders, 74. This brings me to the question of neutralism. Let me say at once that my delegation believes there is nothing wrong when a new and emerging State steers clear of power blocs by adopting a policy of neutrality or non-alignment. There is too much to do at home and too little time in which to do it, to allow involvement in power struggles. All this is understandable. But I submit that neutralism does not mean the repudiation of moral judgement on what is right and what is wrong, what is justice and what is injustice. Certainly, on such issues as Tibet and Hungary—issues that involve such Charter principles as self-determination of peoples, human rights and fundamental freedoms—no country can claim neutrality. 75.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  4. “Turning to the United Nations itself, we find that a constitutional crisis of the-first magnitude has been brought into being by the sudden death of Secretary- General Dag Hammarskjold. For over a year, the Soviet Union has been campaigning for the reorganization of the Secretariat in accordance with the so-called "troika plan." The Soviet intention apparently is so to emasculate the Organization as to render it totally incapable of effective action. My delegation believes that if the United Nations is to meet the challenges of our age, it must have a Secretary-General capable of performing the duties of the office as defined by the Charter. Those of us who have the true interests of the Organization at heart cannot allow it to be destroyed by one Member, however powerful that Member maybe.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  5. “The Berlin crisis is a deliberate Soviet creation designed to bring West Berlin under communist domination. In South Viet-Nam, infiltration and subversion carried out by international communism against the established Government have reached menacing proportions. The peaceful people of the Kingdom of Laos are in danger of losing their independence through a civil war precipitated by the agents of the communist regimes in China and North Viet-Nam. The three-year moratorium on nuclear testing has now come to an abrupt end with the Soviet resumption of detonations. The warlike and aggressive moves on the part of the Soviet Union have brought on a new armaments race which can well trigger off a thermonuclear holocaust. 73.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  6. “The General Assembly was not, however, so successful when it turned its attention to the Soviet Union's bloody suppression of Hungarian freedom. The sad fact is that the influence of the United Nations is mainly felt in .the free world, where public opinion and respect for law and justice play an important role. 72. The present session of the General Assembly has been convened again, as I said, in an atmosphere of crisis. International communism is everywhere on the march, and everywhere it is riding roughshod over the dignity and worth of the human person. In Berlin, the Soviet Union and East German agents are threatening the security and freedom of over two million West Berliners, whose sole desire is to be left alone and to go about their daily pursuits in peace and without fear.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  7. “It is a well known fact that the Security Council has been seriously hampered by the obstructionist tactics of the Soviet Union. To date, its greatest achievement has been the decision taken in 1950 to counter communist aggression in Korea.& And that decision, it will be recalled, was made possible only by the Soviet walk-out from the Council as a gesture of indignation at the failure of its effort to unseat my delegation. Thus, the Soviet Union made a gratuitous contribution to the cause of collective security. 71. Since 1950 the Security Council has all but ceased to* function. The "Uniting for peace" resolution [377 (V)] of November 1950 transferred much of the Council's authority to the General Assembly. It was the General Assembly that dealt successfully with the Suez crisis in 1956.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  8. “This is a question which we must face squarely and unequivocally. On the answering of this question hinges the fate of the United Nations. 69. The statesmen who met in San Francisco in 1945 to frame the Charter of the United Nations had had the sad experience of the League of Nations before them. They therefore set out to create an international Organization not only capable of taking effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of to do so "in conformity with the principles of justice and international law". 70. Under the Charter, the Security Council is vested with full authority to apply all sanctions, including the use of force, against any nation that commits a threat to the peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  9. “It did not hesitate to bring pressure to bear on the victims of aggression to surrender "peacefully" so that war might be avoided. By so doing, it actually aided and abetted aggression. 67. What lesson can we draw from this unhappy episode in recent history? It is, I believe, this. Peace we must at all times cherish. But peace based on political expediency and appeasement rather than on law and justice cannot long endure. The kind of peace which the League of Nations sought so desperately to preserve was a sham peace which proved only to be the prelude to a war far more terrible and devastating than the First World War. By becoming in fact an accomplice in aggression, the League made war inevitable. 68. Are the mistakes of the League of Nations to be repeated by the United Nations?”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  10. “It failed because it did not live up to the promise of the Covenant, particularly Article 10, providing for the mutual guarantee of political independence and territorial integrity of all member States. 66. Article 10 was an American contribution and constituted, in the words of President Woodrow Wilson, "the backbone of the whole of the Covenant" and the sine qua non of any valid system of collective security. The League signed its own death warrant when it capitulated in face of the invasion of the Chinese north-eastern provinces—Manchuria—by the Japanese militarists, of Mussolini's rape of Ethiopia, and of Hitler's expansionist policies in Europe. Strangely enough, the League did all these things in the name of peace and for the sake of peace. It was too much in love with the easy doctrine of peace at all costs.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  11. “In the past, nations of the world used conventional diplomacy to protect and, if possible, to advance what they conceived to be their national interests. In a world in which power politics played a decisive role, it was not always easy for small and weak nations to do so. All too often their vital interests were sacrificed to satisfy the ambitions of the strong and predatory. At the close of the First World War the League of Nations was created to maintain the rule of law in world affairs. A thrill of hope shot through millions of war-weary hearts, who believed that a semblance of law and order was at long last in sight. But these hopes proved ill- founded. The League failed.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  12. “In the introduction [A/4800/Add.l] to the annual report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization, issued not long before his death, he had left us, as it were, his last will and testament. In this document he rejected the idea that the United Nations should be a "static conference machinery" apart but not basically different from conventional diplomacy. He preferred to think of the United Nations as a "dynamic instrument of Governments", a living expression of certain fundamental principles. He had no desire to give the United Nations "a position of power or control in-a Member country". He was convinced, in short, that international order can be maintained only on the basis of law and justice. 65.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)

  13. “It is my pleasant duty, on behalf of my Government and delegation, to extend to Mr. Slim, our sincere congratulations. His unanimous election to the office of President is the measure of the esteem in which he is held by his colleagues in the United Nations. As the representative of Tunisia since 1956 he has served both the United Nations and his country with courage and distinction. Now, under his able and wise guidance, the sixteenth regular session of the General Assembly, though begin under the shadow of tragedy in the death of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, may yet end on a note of hope, as he himself has so well said in his inaugural address [1008th meeting]. 64. The late Secretary-General had great faith in the United Nations. He had definite ideas of the direction in which the United Nations must move.”

    1961-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 16 (1961)