UN SPEECHES
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The 1970s

Detente & Upheaval

A decade marked by superpower detente, the oil crisis, and the end of the Vietnam War. China's entry into the UN in 1971 reshaped global diplomacy.

Most Cited Figures (1970-1979)

Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim dominated citations throughout the decade. Mao Zedong became prominent after China's admission to the UN in 1971, reshaping the Security Council's dynamics. The transition from U Thant to Waldheim marked a generational shift in UN leadership.

RankPersonMentionsCategory
#1Kurt Waldheim882UN Leader
#2U Thant172UN Leader
#3Salvador Allende109World Leader
#4Jimmy Carter80World Leader
#5Simon Bolivar65Historical Figure
#6Gamal Abdel Nasser52World Leader
#7Willy Brandt52World Leader
#8Fidel Castro51World Leader
#9Jomo Kenyatta25World Leader
#10Dag Hammarskjöld24UN Leader
#11Leopold Senghor22World Leader
#12Karl Marx19Economist
#13Benazir Bhutto18World Leader
#14Augusto Pinochet17World Leader
#15Yasser Arafat15World Leader
#16Charles de Gaulle14World Leader
#17Jawaharlal Nehru13World Leader
#18Niccolò Machiavelli12Political Thinker
#19Haile Selassie11World Leader
#20John F. Kennedy11World Leader

Notable Quotations

"The imperialists and their reactionary servants oppose Cuba"
Fidel Castro•Cited by Cuba (1978)
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"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can be achieved only by understanding"
Albert Einstein•Cited by Israel (1974)
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"You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time."
Abraham Lincoln•Cited by Rwanda (1973)
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"on a common mode of existence, on a way of living for others, if we really want to live for ourselves"
Seneca•Cited by Dahomey (1972)
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"Much of the usefulness of the United Nations is unknown and indeed intangible. But, however faulty, it represents an aspiration and a method of trying to realize a great ideal"
U Thant•Cited by Turkey (1971)
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