UN General Assembly
1981

"How beautiful it would be if the Isthmus of Panama were to us what the Isthmus of Corinth is to the Greeks. Would to God that we may some day have the good fortune to convene there an august assembly of the representatives of republics, kingdoms and empires to deliberate upon the high interests of peace and of war with nations from three-quarters of the globe. This type of organization may come to pass in some happier period of our regeneration. . . 55. Thirty-six years of United Nations life have led to the identification of its pathway, the consolidation of its perspectives and the evaluation of its achievements and failures. 56. Those years have seen much progress in terms of decolonization and the furthering of human rights. World political geography has a new design; the traditional great empires have disappeared. None the less, power politics, cruel and covert, have made themselves felt in the life of this institution, but the constant labor of the small countries has given it an authentic being of its own.