UN General Assembly
1972

101. The Secretary-General of the United Nations has just affirmed that "the process of detente among the great Powers is certainly a historic event of the highest importance" [A/8701fAdd.1, p. 1]. This fact has led to what has been called a "balance of prudence" and permits us to hope for better results in the not-too-distant future. Despite these encouraging circumstances in which understanding and negotiations have begun in areas in which before they only moved within an atmosphere of confrontation, it has not yet been possible to eliminate conflicts which entail military hostilities, with great human losses, serious destruction and innocent victims, because of acts of violence and uncontrolled aggression. It has become obvious that the United Nations has not been able to put an end to or resolve these situations which have so gravely threatened peace and which in some cases have unleashed actual armed conflicts, which we still witness with grief, because of the powerlessness of the means called upon to maintain peace and security, indeed the principal objective of our Organization.