UN General Assembly
1981

270. Whatever imperfections the system of detente contained, it was itself a landmark in the easing of world tension. It focused attention on areas of cooperation, the need to resolve conflicts through negotiations and the need for a reduction in armaments. Above all, it focused on the need to avoid a nuclear holocaust. Today, however, the world is experiencing a fateful relapse from detente into a race between East and West for armed supremacy. This has manifested itself in terms of increased military spending and the development of new weapons, on the one hand, and the replacement of negotiations between the superPowers by verbal rhetoric exchanged through the news media, on the other.