UN General Assembly
1961

82. I referred at the beginning of my speech to the deteriorating international situation and I mentioned Berlin and Germany as a major factor in this. There is another development that has threatened the peace of the world and international confidence. This new element is the resumption of nuclear tests by the Soviet Union. We had hoped that there would b^ a permanent cessation of these tests. The United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union had all stated that none of them would be the first to resume nuclear tests. The General Assembly of the United Nations had adopted resolutions [1577 (XV) and 1578 (XV)] on the subject. A permanent cessation of tests would have done a number of things. It would have prevented the continuance of fall-out from nuclear tests in various parts of the world. It would have helped to limit the spread of weapons to other countries and the emergence of new nuclear Powers. It would have imposed some limitation on the development and growth of new and terrible weapons. It could have been a sort of pilot project which would have lessons for wider disarmament arrangements. And so we had hoped, nevertheless knowing all the difficulties, knowing all the disadvantages and weaknesses of a voluntary arrangement, that the arrangement we had could persist, and that it would lead us into a situation that would give permanent assurance of an end to nuclear explosions. However, the tests have been resumed.