UN General Assembly
1948

The work of the Atomic Energy Commission had remained fruitless, and the reason was that the Government of the United States had refused and continued to refuse to solve the principal problem, the solution of which would determine the direction and nature of all measures relevant to the problem of removing atomic weapons from national armaments and securing the atomic energy only and exclusively for peaceful purposes. Mr. Vyshinsky pointed out that, as was well- known, the Soviet Union had insisted and continued to insist on the necessity for immediately prohibiting atomic weapons and their utilization for aggressive ends. The Soviet Union insisted on the need for establishing strict and effective international control over the observance of such a ban on the use of atomic weapons. The necessity to prohibit atomic weapons arose from the very nature of that type of weapon because it was essentially an aggressive weapon intended for attack and attack only. It was designed to destroy cities; it was a weapon designed for mass extermination of peaceful populations.