UN General Assembly
1968

8. At the stage now reached by the United Nations as a result of the liquidation of the old empires and the admission of many new States to membership in the Organization, everything points to the fact that understanding among the great Powers — to which the Charter of San Francisco, with unexceptionable realism, entrusted the main responsibility for the maintenance of peace, giving them special rights and responsibilities in the Security Council — is necessary but not sufficient to prevent war.