UN General Assembly
1972

167. But are the difficulties and sacrifices which a "go-it-alone" policy implies necessary in our world today? Are all the professions of international solidarity mere empty phrases? It is the view of my delegation that the United Nations has since its inception been too preoccupied with the containment of political problems, important though these are. The larger issue, in the view of my delegation, the far more dangerous tension arising from indefensible disparities in economic levels of well-being, has not received the attention it deserves, especially from the big Powers of the world which, given the will, have the capacity to create a world without hunger, a world without poverty, a world without disease. 168. As far back as 1944, at Dumbarton Oaks, the founding fathers of the United Nations recognized the dangers inherent in economic and social disparities, and accordingly entrenched in the Charter the need for their eventual elimination. The Charter envisages the employment of international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.