UN General Assembly
1963

As one who has taken some interest in the election of Presidents, I should like to congratulate the President of the General Assembly on his election to this high office. 33. Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, representatives of the United Nations, ladies and gentlemen: We meet again in the quest for peace. Twenty-four months ago, when I last had the honour of addressing this body, the shadow of fear lay darkly across the world. The freedom of West Berlin was in immediate peril. Agreement on a neutral Laos seemed remote. The mandate of the United Nations in the Congo was under fire. The financial outlook for this Organization was in doubt. Dag Hammarskjöld was dead. The doctrine of "troika" was being pressed in his place and atmospheric nuclear tests had been resumed by the Soviet Union.