UN General Assembly
1969

old. These experiences reveal failures—that is true—but also successes. Let us learn from both. We can then see more clearly where the United Nations has its limitations and its possibilities. We can then more easily choose methods to expand the possibilities. 5. In Viet-Nam the war continues. The bombing of North Viet-Nam has ceased, but in the South the war rages with undiminished intensity. The severely afflicted people of South Viet-Nam are exposed to terrible personal sufferings and to heavy material destruction. Earlier costly experience has shown that the conflict cannot be settled by military means, It would now appear that the parties have come to realize this. 6. At an earlier stage of the war we expressed the hope that the United States, as being the party vastly superior in strength and in view of its responsibility as a world Power, should take the first step which could lead to negotiations aiming at a cessation of the war. It is gratifying that, as Secretary-General U Thant foresaw at the time, the cessation