UN General Assembly
1973

114. The first reason is that my country, after more than a century and a half of independence, has stood as an example of civic life and has never tolerated dictatorships, racism or totalitarism and that our eminently apolitical and professional armed forces have been an example to the world. We who wear the uniform are proud of that tradition. 115. The second is that Chile, having agreed to the establishment by democratic means of a Government imbued with foreign doctrines, loyally collaborated in the search for a socialist direction compatible with our own national reality and our traditions of freedom, justice and dignity; so much so that, at the beginning of the socialist experiment, the political parties unanimously supported the Government, as in the nationalization of the copper industry, and likewise the armed forces, when called upon in moments of grave crisis, accepted upon their shoulders the burden of heavy responsibilities.