UN General Assembly
1958

53. Disarmament is a complex and many-sided problem, and any projected measure in this field affects the most vital interests of States — those of their security. Experience has shown that this problem cannot be solved at one stroke and in its entirety in the present atmosphere of "cold war" and acute distrust among States. In these circumstances, only those who base their entire policy on the continuation of the arms race can refuse to seek measures to check and arrest the accumulation of arms — measures which may be limited at the start, but which are nevertheless concrete and capable of producing results even now. 54. A State's budget reflects as though in a mirror its economic life, its efforts in the area of peaceful construction and in the military sphere. A reduction in armaments inevitably leads to a decrease in budgetary appropriations for that purpose, and, conversely, curtailment of the funds earmarked for military purposes in the budget is a means of ensuring a reduction in armaments.