UN General Assembly
1953

86. This eighth session of the General Assembly is opening at an historic moment which may be decisive for the future of mankind. We cannot escape the overwhelming fact that the great Powers have devised methods of warfare and developed weapons of destruction of such magnitude that their use would result not only in their own annihilation, but in the end of civilization and the extermination of mankind. If we ponder the opinions of scientists and experts on this subject, we can safely say that the very existence of hydrogen and atomic weapons has irrevocably abolished the old concept of victors and vanquished. The potential adversaries have become united through those weapons in a common destiny — to live or die together. 87. Faced though we are with that stark prospect, the armistice in Korea gives grounds for hope of a just and lasting settlement which will lead to a gradual solution of other problems, so that step by step we may consolidate the peace.