UN General Assembly
1960

68. The second point I want to make on this great problem is that I cannot honestly accept the view that armaments are the major cause of world tension. That view seems to me a serious over-simplification. True, if any Power or combination of Powers has shown that it is aggressively-minded and seeks to extend its boundaries of control wider and wider, try force if necessary, then the possession by that Power or group of Powers of vast armaments will be a cause of tension. But if the non-aggressive Powers are in the result driven into maintaining and developing great defensive armaments, it is proper to say that their armaments are the results of tension and not its cause. 69. In effect, what we need in the world, just as much as the vastly important disarmament talks, is a serious attempt by negotiation to encourage freedom and understanding, to remove the causes of friction and to persuade nations that aggressive policies and proselytising political religions are the enemies of peace.