UN General Assembly
1961

78. First, the Soviet Union says that there must be no inspection until all arms are destroyed; that any inspection meanwhile amounts to espionage. Anyone can see how difficult that makes a programme of staged disarmament, yet what else can there be? Let us suppose that each side puts 500 aeroplanes into a bonfire. One can inspect such a bonfire, but one cannot, as I understand the Soviet position, inspect what is coming off the supply lines in the factory. How is one to know that the very next day another 500, or even 1,000, aeroplanes will not be produced to replace those that have been burnt? That is one of the difficulties that must be resolved, but it cannot be done by a mere statement of principle — much as one welcomes agreement upon these, because any agreement is better than none.