UN General Assembly
1968

27. A more realistic view of international life reveals to us that the United Nations, although it has many shortcomings, has acted and can again act when circumstances permit — in particular agreement, lassitude or uneasiness among the great nations as a salutary buffer against the unleashing of power politics, safeguarding that peace which is so necessary to meet the growing needs of the unfortunate people of the third world and to fulfil their legitimate desires for economic and social progress. 28. The Organization, with its specialized agencies and with the neutrality made presumptive by its near-universality, is still the ideal meeting place where the great Powers could, without losing face, sit down at the conference table and debate the conditions for re-establishing that armed coexistence which is, in spite of everything, better than local confrontations that may lead to widespread war with, on the horizon, the deadly threat of the atomic mushroom.