UN General Assembly
1976

12. The memorandum of the Soviet Union on questions of ending the arms race and disarmament submitted by Mr., A. A. Gromyko, USSR Foreign Minister, for the consideration of the current session of the General Assembly [A/31/232], quite rightly draws the attention of all States and peoples to the central and urgent task facing humanity at present-to stop the material preparation for war. The memorandum convincingly showed that, during the nuclear missile era, the arms race is a formidable danger for the future of peoples of our planet. Despite its utter absurdity, the search for ways and means of gaining military superiority, which is the main preoccupation of aggressive military- political blocs, entails staggering expenditures of material resources. The following figures graphically demonstrate the rate of growth in military expenditures: whereas in 1949 the military appropriations of the countries members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] totaled $18 billion, in 1976 this sum reached $170 billion. Conscious of obstacles in the road to the cessation of the arms race, we believe at the same time in the possibility and feasibility of overcoming the resistance of disarmament opponents, as is shown by steps taken in the field of the curtailment of the arms race in recent times, especially in the period when the present process of improving the political climate has set in.