UN General Assembly
1955

64. I therefore sincerely believe that the Soviet Union is misguided in attacking NATO and in concentrating its propaganda on the removal of what it inaccurately describes as “foreign bases”. 65. I should like to emphasize again today what I said at San Francisco. I know of no “foreign bases” within the framework of NATO, nor do I know of any “foreign” military establishments imposed on any State within that same framework. I know only of joint defences, pooled freely and voluntarily, solely in the service of the same peaceful ideal. 66. I feel bound to declare quite candidly that if relaxation of tension is to mean the dissolution of NATO and the departure of the Americans from Europe, then France is firmly opposed to such a policy, for it would mean the destruction of the bases of a true security in exchange for the promises of a hypothetical security, it would inevitably result in a disturbance of equilibrium which, by increasing tension, would ultimately spell the doom of peaceful coexistence.