YouSaid · the spoken record

VYSHINSKY

lines on the record: 673
first: 1947-09-24
most recent: 1954-09-24
sittings or episodes: 8
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“This is clearly proved by the measures taken by the United States Government with regard to Greece and Turkey which ignore and by-pass the United Nations as well as by the measures proposed under the so-called Marshall Plan in Europe. This policy conflicts sharply with the principle expressed by the General Assembly in its resolution of 11 December 1946, which declares that relief supplies to other countries “should ... at no time be used as a political weapon.” As is now clear, the Marshall Plan constitutes in essence merely a variant of the Truman Doctrine adapted to the conditions of post-war Europe.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“The so-called Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan are particularly glaring examples of the manner in which the principles of the United Nations are violated, of the way in which the Organization is ignored. As the experience of the past few months has shown, the proclamation of this doctrine meant that the United States Government has moved towards a direct renunciation of the principles of international collaboration and concerted action by the great Powers, and towards attempts to impose its will on other independent States, while at the same time obviously using the economic resources distributed as relief to individual needy nations as an instrument of political pressure.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“It is obviously impossible in such a situation to reckon on success when certain delegations make no effort to collaborate in achieving the aims set forth in the Assembly resolution of 14 December last. Such a situation is intolerable. We cannot accept the fact that the threat to use atomic energy for mass destruction and the extermination of peaceful populations has still not been removed. The conscience of peoples cannot tolerate a situation where, notwithstanding the appeal of the United Nations to put an end to the atomic weapon and other basic types of weapons for the mass destruction of human life, the production of such weapons is not only continuing but is becoming even more widespread.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“The United States representatives propose to postpone for an indefinite period the establishment of control over the final and most dangerous stages of atomic production, for which the United States feels it has a monopoly at present. At the same time they insist on the immediate introduction of control over the first stage, the extraction of the raw material. It is quite clear that the United States position cannot be interpreted otherwise than as a method designed to avoid the extension of control to the United States, while at the same time all other countries would be immediately subject to international control. That is the position as regards atomic energy.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“The British scientists’ memorandum already quoted does not conceal the fact that the United States plan for the organization of atomic energy control provides for measures which “may be interpreted as maintaining the supremacy of the United States in the field of atomic energy.” The Soviet delegation has objected to such a provision and will continue to object, since its aim is not the supremacy of a single country in the international control agency, but the equality of all the members of this agency in all its activities. In this connexion it should also be pointed out that the United States representatives on the Atomic Energy Commission stubbornly object to the simultaneous establishment of control over atomic production in all its stages, from the extraction of the raw material to the delivery of the finished products.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“The United States delegation and some other delegations supporting it are especially urging that all factories producing atomic materials in dangerous quantities be owned and managed by an international control agency with proprietary rights which would act in accordance with the interests of the majority of the agency’s members, who can hardly be relied upon to be kindly disposed towards the Soviet Union. And that is precisely the position which the delegations associated with the United States delegation and acting under its guidance are striving to reach.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“The memorandum states: “The United States and other supporters of the Baruch Plan should be encouraged to formulate safeguards to ensure that any inspection scheme should not develop into an elaborate system of espionage.” Basing itself on the above principles for organizing international control which, I repeat, should be real, strong and effective, the Soviet delegation considers it essential to keep inspection agencies within certain limits, to restrict their powers to the actual task of atomic energy control and to' exclude the possibility of control agencies being used to pry arbitrarily into any branch of a country’s national economy quite regardless of the fact that such interference might undermine and shatter the national economy of that country.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“Here again the British atomic scientists are right when, in their memorandum published on 23 January last, they express the desire “that the right of inspection should be limited as far as possible and should not take the form of excessive curiosity with regard to legitimate industry and other forms of activity.” In their memorandum published in August of this year, the British scientists once again indicate the necessity for restricting within specific limits the right of inspection, which should not serve the ends of organized economic and military intelligence.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
““Such a convention,” says the memorandum of the British Association of Scientific Workers, “appears to us to be very desirable, and it is difficult to justify the reluctance of the United Kingdom and the United States to agree to it.” The British scientists, in appraising the USSR demand to destroy stocks of completed atomic weapons and to stop their production, state that such a demand seems to them to be eminently reasonable. The Soviet Union stands for strict international control of atomic energy plants, but this control should not be transformed into interference in those branches of national industry or in those matters which have no connexion with atomic energy.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“At the same time it would make it possible for all countries to take the initiative in the construction of atomic energy plants inside their territories to augment their other power resources. In the interests of strengthening universal peace, the Soviet Union suggested the conclusion of a convention prohibiting the use of atomic weapons in any circumstances. The Soviet Union’s suggestion was widely welcomed and supported in all countries.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“Baruch began work, rightly say: “Such a restriction would make it possible to interfere in the economic life of each country to an extent not necessary for preventing the use of atomic energy for destructive purposes.” These are the views of men of science, who regard this problem from the point of view of scientific progress, which is incompatible with the unrestricted control by any centralized international organ over scientific research for peaceful purposes, directed towards discovering and increasing power resources for the good of mankind as a whole. That is why the British Atomic Scientists’ memorandum favours a plan which would safeguard against an accumulation of dangerous materials without the authorization of the atomic energy control organs.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“As is known, the British scientists in that memorandum stress the fact that to place the means of production in the full possession — taking this word in its usual sense — of this agency would create difficulties. It would give the atomic energy control agency the power to decide whether a particular country was entitled to build atomic energy plants, and to prevent the energy produced by such plants being used or to decide on what conditions the energy was to be supplied. The British scientists, in criticizing the provision supported by the United States delegation ever since Mr.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“In the Soviet delegation’s proposals, inspection also is taken account of as a fundamental measure to be adopted following the prohibition of the atomic weapon. However, the United States delegation has now suddenly begun to minimize the importance of inspection and is giving first place to other questions, the transfer of atomic plants to the ownership of an international body, administration, licensing, etc. Furthermore, the United States delegation refuses to take account of the opinion of authoritative scientists, as expressed for example in the memorandum of the British Council of the Association of Atomic Scientists, which includes such distinguished scientists as Rudolf Peierls, Marcus Oliphant, Moon and others, who are opposed to ownership by an international control agency, of resources for the manufacture of atomic energy.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“For example, we could eliminate the difference of opinion regarding the Soviet delegation’s proposal to destroy existing atomic bomb stocks when the convention on the prohibition of atomic weapons comes into force. As you know, the majority of the Commission agreed in principle that stocks of atomic weapons should be destroyed and their nuclear fuel content used only for peaceful purposes. The United States delegation alone still objects to atomic bomb stocks being destroyed and is thus preventing adoption of a decision approved by the majority of the Commission with regard to the solution of this problem. The situation which has arisen in connexion with the question of inspection is worthy of notice. Until recently, the United States delegation stressed the special importance of inspection.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“However, this proposal was opposed, chiefly by the United States. In the belief that it will retain its monopoly of the atomic weapon, the United States opposes all attempts to destroy its existing stock of atomic bombs and to forbid their manufacture in the future, while at the same time, it is systematically expanding the production of these bombs. The differences of opinion arising from this situation among the members of the Commission impede work and paralyse all efforts to solve successfully the problems before the Commission. Meanwhile, there is no doubt that, by a more impartial approach to the question, on the part of certain delegations, among them the United States delegation, many divergencies of view, could be removed.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“This alarm is all the more justified because atomic weapons are weapons of attack, weapons of aggression. The outcome of eighteen months’ work by the Atomic Energy Commission is that not only has not a single one of the tasks laid upon it by the Assembly resolution of 24 January 1946 been fulfilled, but no progress whatsoever has even been made towards such fulfilment. For its part, the Soviet Government took a number of steps to co-operate in the satisfactory solution of this problem. In further amplification of its proposal regarding the conclusion of an international agreement for the prohibition of atomic weapons and other basic types of mass destruction weapons, the Soviet Government submitted for the consideration of the Atomic Energy Commission a proposal on the fundamental rules for the international control of atomic energy.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“This attitude of the United States and the United Kingdom on the question of armaments reduction and the failure to achieve positive results in solving the problems referred to in the resolution of 14 December 1946 engenders, as I have said, justifiable alarm and concern for the success of the work we have begun, feelings which are enhanced in particular by the race in armaments, including atomic weapons, and the military preparations of certain militarily and economically powerful States. This undermines faith in the sincerity of statements and speeches made about peace and expressing determination to save future generations from the calamity of war. The unsatisfactory state of affairs regarding the abolition of atomic and other basic types of mass destruction weapons is particularly alarming to millions of ordinary people.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“Bevin at Southport to the effect that he did not intend to promote disarmament is a convincing reply to queries as to the reasons for the unsatisfactory state of affairs with regard to the implementation of the General Assembly resolution on the reduction of armaments. The same view was expressed by President Truman in a recent speech at Petropolis, where he stressed the fact that the armed forces of the United States would be maintained, but said not a word concerning the obligation assumed by the United Nations under the Assembly resolutions to reduce armed forces.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“But these hopes have been disappointed. When attempts were made in the Security Council and in the Commission for Conventional Armaments to plan practical measures for implementing the resolution of the General Assembly on the general regulation and reduction of armaments, the representatives of the United States and the United Kingdom put forward such conditions as could not but frustrate the execution of the resolution. All the activity of the United States and United Kingdom delegations in the Commission for Conventional Armaments testifies to the fact that these countries do not wish to reduce their armaments; do not wish to disarm and are delaying disarmament, thus sowing alarm among peace-loving peoples. The statement by Mr.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“The resolution unanimously adopted last year by the General Assembly on the general reduction of armaments responds to the vital interests of millions of common people, who, even though the Second World War is over, are still bearing the heavy burden of military expenditures and the excessive hardships connected with the continuing increase in armaments. The Assembly resolution is at the same time an expression of the aspirations and demands of the peace-loving peoples for the establishment of lasting peace and international security. It is an expression of demands dictated by the sufferings they have undergone and the sacrifices they have endured. That was precisely why this resolution was greeted by the peoples of the whole world with deep satisfaction and with hopes for its speedy and total implementation.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“On the other hand, the unsatisfactory state of affairs in the United Nations, which is unfavourably affecting its authority, arose from the fact that the States referred to have ignored the United Nations by trying to carry out various practical measures outside its framework and bypassing the Organization. We must pay attention to the serious danger to the United Nations which arises from such a policy, which is incompatible with the principles of the Charter and with the aims and tasks which the United Nations had in view when the Organization was established. As one of the most serious defects in the functioning of the United Nations, I must mention, in the first place, the unsatisfactory progress made in implementing the General Assembly resolution of 14 December 1946 on the general reduction of armaments.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“They have consisted chiefly in deviations from the most important principles on which the United Nations is founded and, in a number of cases, even of outright violation of several important decisions of the General Assembly. These defects have arisen, to a considerable extent, from the efforts of such influential States Members of the United Nations as the United States and the United Kingdom to use the Organization for their own narrow group interests, disregarding the importance of strengthening international collaboration based on the principles of the Charter. The policy pursued by individual States of using the Organization in their own selfish, narrowly-conceived interests is gradually undermining its authority, just as it undermined the authority of the late lamented League of Nations.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)
“A year has passed since the first session of the General Assembly. It is necessary to look back on the path which has been travelled during this interval, to analyse the work done by the United Nations during this time, to sum up the situation and indicate the possibilities that lie ahead. Every delegation, every country which is a Member of the United Nations is bound to carry out this duty impartially, recognizing its supreme responsibility in this task which demands the utmost clarity, objectivity and respect for the paramount importance of truth. Looking back, the Soviet delegation must state that during the period under consideration there have been serious defects in the work of the United Nations. These defects must be exposed and specified boldly and consistently.”
1947-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 2 (1947)