UN General Assembly
1966

52. My delegation sincerely hopes that the day will soon come when the brave people of the Republic of Viet-Nam, who have suffered so much and so long from external aggression, will once again be able to live in peace among themselves as well as with their neighbours. We are appreciative of the initiatives taken by various Governments and individual statesmen in an effort to bring the Viet-Nam issue from the battlefield to the conference table. But it seems to us that before any meaningful negotiations can be undertaken there must be a clear understanding of the ends to be achieved. Certainly the freedom and independence of the Republic of Viet-Nam cannot be bargained away in the name of peace. Certainly negotiation cannot mean any abandonment of resistance to communist aggression, thus leaving the Republic of Viet-Nam to the tender mercies of Ho Chi Minh. Certainly negotiation cannot be just another name for defeat for all the peoples of South-East Asia who refuse to submit to an unwanted fate.