UN General Assembly
1954

57. All local Communist Parties, then, are virtual Soviet soldiers detailed for fifth-column attacks from within. To provide a favourable milieu for this form of aggression, the Communists have now invented a new slogan — the slogan of peaceful co-existence. The concept of co-existence suggests a mutual regard for each other’s boundaries and non-intervention on each other’s internal affairs. But the attack from within as I have described it, does not need, in its operation, to violate any physical boundary or to give the appearance of intervention. The so-called peaceful co-existence can well afford to co-exist with an attack from within. That being so, the conventional concept of non-interference in domestic affairs can in no way deter the Communists from indulging in the tactics of attack from within. On the contrary, the conventional concept of the term would lend it all the necessary legal support and give it an aura of respectability. We must therefore conclude that the communist tactics of attack from within are as much a form of aggression as an unprovoked attack on another country. It is a matter on which the United Nations can no longer remain detached and unconcerned. It is imperative that the threat posed by this form of aggression to the peace and security of the world be recognized by Members of this Organization and that concerted efforts be made to counter it.