UN General Assembly
1953

10. Mr. Spaak, the then Foreign Minister of Belgium, put our feelings as eloquently and succinctly as they have ever been put when he said to the General Assembly in 1948: “The Soviet delegation need not look for complicated explanations of our policy. I will tell him what is the basis of our policy — in terms which are perhaps slightly cruel, but which only the representative of a small nation could use. Do you know what is the basis of our policy? It is fear of you, fear of your Government, fear of your policy.” Then Mr. Spaak went on to say: “Do you [the delegation of the Soviet Union] know why we [the Western European countries] are afraid? We are afraid because you often speak of imperialism. “What is the definition and current notion of imperialism? It is usually the idea of a nation, generally a great Power, that makes conquests and increases its influence throughout the world. “What is the historic truth that has emerged from recent years? It is that one great country alone has emerged from the war having conquered other territories — and that great country is the Soviet Union... “The empire of the Soviet Union stretches from the Far East to the Baltic Sea and from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and is now also felt on the banks of the Rhine ... and then the Soviet Union wonders why the other nations feel anxious.”