UN General Assembly
1985

In the years following the Second World War the international community, mindful of the lessons of history, and exercising political will, decided to prevent a recurrence of the economic events of the 1930s, which were, to a large extent, the principal causes of the most destructive war the world has ever known. The 1930s were marked by a severe recession, uncertainty, monetary and trade instability, disarray in the financial markets and lack of economic co-operation. Each country tried to solve its problems alone and to export them to other countries, upon the cessation of hostilities in 1945, in a demonstration of co-operation that was also without precedent, there was a transfer of real resources for the reconstruction of Europe and Japan that saved the countries involved from famine and did much to promote their remarkable recovery.