UN General Assembly
1980

252. If there is a hope of avoiding the woes and horrors of war and if there is a way for peoples to realize their aspirations in terms of welfare and prosperity, that hope or way lies in the capacity of this Organization to work to maintain, consolidate and serve those goals. This requires a sincere effort to prevent the use of the tools of mass genocide and destruction, which have become so powerful and so effective as to be capable of annihilating the population of the world within a very short period and of endangering world peace in every way. 253. We know, of course, that this overwhelming threat and the horrible "balance of terror" among those Powers that possess such awful weapons—especially the United States and the Soviet Union—are among the main reasons preventing the recurring crises in the world from turning into full-scale destructive wars.