UN General Assembly
1961

69. We stand here professing our desire for peace but in fact we are mocked and disgraced by our own performance. 70. The problem which faces us is exactly the same as the problem which faced the authors of the Charter. It is how to deal with an abuse of power by one country or by a combination of countries. The classic answer for keeping the peace is the balance of power. It is true, I believe, that since the last war it has been the balance of power which has in fact kept the peace. It is true, too, that in a nuclear age it is more important than at any other time that no one side should gain an advantage over the other which would tempt an aggressor to act. But the balance of power is not the complete safeguard of peace for which men have been searching. For rearmament, where one combination of countries feels bound to match the invention of the other, gains a kind of momentum of its own, and history has shown us how fatally easy it is for that to get out of hand. It is well to remind ourselves that the authors of the Charter saw only one answer to this problem and one remedy for it — namely, disarmament, and disarmament accompanied by collective machinery to keep the peace.