UN General Assembly
1947

The principle of unanimity cannot be established by fiat. It can only spring from an inward discipline which is strong enough to dissuade the permanent members from acting on the impulse of naked self-interest, inspired on the one hand by the foreknowledge of substantial majorities, or on the other by the certainty of defeat. Such discipline cannot grow so long as each of the permanent members knows that it has always close at hand the invincible weapon that is the veto. Modify the veto, place it beyond reach and use, except for extraordinary and justifiable occasions, and you open the road towards the methods of compromise and adjustment which constitute the discipline of which I have spoken. In accordance with these views, my Government would support every reasonable proposal to limit or regulate the exercise of the veto, if possible by measures voluntarily accepted by the permanent members, or if necessary by appropriate amendments to Article 27 of the Charter.