UN General Assembly
1969

108. The reason why we are neutral—as we have solemnly proclaimed, demonstrated in our institutions and translated in our actions—is that, in the first place, neutrality accords with our nature, with the aspiration of our people for a harmonious order without diktats and without undue prohibitions, and that it conforms to the expression of our religious beliefs and to our behaviour in social life. 109. The reason why we are neutral—we went to Geneva in 1954 and 1962 to have that status conferred on us in accordance with our wishes—is also that we wish to avoid any confrontation, on our soil and to our detriment, of foreign forces, in order not to have to take sides in a combat which bodes only ruin and mourning for our people and to remove any reason for distrust or suspicion based on connivance, complicity or alliance with one party or the other. 110. Despite all these measures, aimed at preventing war and resulting from the state of war, what do we see in return? North Viet-Namese troops whose numbers exceed