UN General Assembly
1965

116. The problem of peace seems to be as difficult as squaring the circle. The Covenant of the League of Nations was unable to solve it and the world was engulfed in the most terrible war ever known. Twenty years ago a system of collective security was worked out. But it has not taken long for that system, as we see today, to show alarming signs of failure. Last year the nineteenth session of the General Assembly was cut short. Delegations dispersed without having had an opportunity to consider the items on the agenda. They prudently postponed consideration of them to this year’s session, hoping to find by this time a magic formula which would offer a way out of the impasse. But even though the financial deadlock seems today to have been broken, it would be an illusion to think that the problem of peace has been solved as well. The difficulties experienced by the United Nations in recent months are neither financial difficulties nor legal difficulties connected with the interpretation of the Charter.