UN General Assembly
1963

112. We appreciate the position of certain great Powers, in that they are bound by political and military alliances with colonial Powers; but we would venture to point out that even the indirect aid they are giving Portugal enables the Salazar Government to intensify its savage repression of the African peoples fighting to regain their independence. Everyone knows that without the considerable facilities available to it under NATO, Portugal, which is at present one of the most backward countries in Europe, would be in no position to continue its colonial war in Africa. Thus, the NATO Powers share the responsibility for the crimes committed in Africa by Portugal. We therefore ask them to cut off their assistance to the Salazar Government so long as it persists in its aberration of regarding African territories as provinces of Portugal. Most of all, we ask the great Powers, friendly to Portugal, which are permanent members of the Security Council to make Salazar understand that history is a graveyard of defunct empires and that the Portuguese colonial empire can be no exception.