UN General Assembly
1948

He asked the General Assembly to consider those suggestions, for the time for denunciation and measures of exclusion had passed. Formerly, political considerations had been predominant. The dominating argument should now be the need for peace; peace above all. The terrible realities of war, which was the main topic of conversation in the humblest homes, everywhere loomed like a thundercloud over the world. Faced with that fear, an attempt must be made to rally the nations by an appeal to their courage in facing their responsibilities rather than to appeal to their fear of them. A form of suicidal mania had led to war in 1989. It might be said that fear of war had led to war. The men of 1948, with their mind’s eye fixed upon the proud but grievous loss of their kin, should destroy that war psychosis. The spectre of the inevitability of war should be laid by resolution and co-operation.