UN General Assembly
1970

81. The gradation of the number of dead is a tragic experience in the history of war. Until the last century, wars consisted of movements of armies with the purpose of occupying enemy territory. The First World War was a war of positions, of trenches, in which each kilometer which was won or lost meant a terrible harvest of death. The Second World War witnessed the mass destruction of populations behind the battle front, so as to break the enemy nations' economic power and will to struggle. A third world war would affect all of mankind and could not be won by any Power because it would have the return character of a boomerang, given the fact that its lethal power is as uncontrollable as it is universal. Until a few years ago nuclear power was calculated to be 100,000 megatons. Today this must have increased considerably. In explosive force, this means more than 100,000 million tons of TNT; but in lethal power it means much more than that, because the radioactive fallout would produce destructive effects at. distances of thousands of kilometers away.