UN General Assembly
1970

80. On arriving at the end of our first quarter of a century, we have to ask ourselves whether the Organization has discharged its essential duty of maintaining international peace and security. It is a positive fact that during these 25 years mankind has been spared the scourge of a total war, but as you, Mr. President, so brilliantly stated in your opening statement: "But peace is not the mere absence of armed conflict" [1839th meeting, para 45]. It is obvious that the fictitious universal peace which we live in is, rather than an absence of conflict, the expression of a terrifying balance of the weapons of mass destruction, especially thermonuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles.