UN General Assembly
1952

31. Of course, in speaking as I do I am thinking particularly of the free world, that is to say, of that part of the world which is not held in the autarkic grip of the communist regime. This does not mean that the communist countries, despite their wish to isolate themselves, escape completely from the rule I have just mentioned. If we went to the heart of the matter, we should soon see that a number of major laws — for example, those relating to the increase of productivity — prove to operate under the communist system as in the free regimes. In certain analogous cases, the same causes produce the same effects on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Thus, for example, the Soviet economy is suffering like our own from the inevitable consequences of large-scale rearmament; I might compare this rearmament to an ogre whose appetite is satisfied only at the expense of the standard of living of the people, irrespective of the regime under which they live.