25. Before coming to the substance of my statement, I wish to congratulate you most sincerely, Mr. President, upon your election. I must also express my pleasure that Guyana, an integral part of the Latin American continent, has become a Member of the United Nations, and say how extremely happy we are to see a community living in our region acquire its complete political independence. We hope to establish most cordial and fruitful relations with this new State.
26. The present session of the General Assembly has opened in the most sombre circumstances. A few weeks ago, the United States Secretary of Defence said that this planet was becoming a most
dangerous place in which to live, not only on account of the possible nuclear holocaust but also because of the large number of de facto conflicts and because the tendency towards such conflicts was growing instead of diminishing.
27. Those were the words of a man who bears a great responsibility in relation to decisions that may mean peace or war. They reveal the gravity of the problem that is today the main source of anxiety to the nations of the earth, a problem which the spiritual leaders of mankind are making unremitting efforts to solve.
28. Peace is jeopardized in so many places and for so many reasons. It is jeopardized by the insistence on nuclear testing and by the irresponsible technical development of nuclear weapons. It has already been breached in Viet-Nam, where men from all over the world are dying and a whole people is suffering a slow agony, in a war that tugs at the very roots of human conscience. Peace has been breached, for the victims of dictatorships and violent political systems can be counted in their thousands. There is no peace because millions of human beings suffer from hunger, disease and ignorance and millions live in insecurity and have no choice but to do so.
29. All this is known to every one of you. It has been stated by eminent persons and by the representatives of great Powers. I am making no attempt to be original; what I wish to do is to tell you frankly and sincerely what we think of the situation and of the ways in which it might be remedied.
30. The history of mankind has been, to a considerable extent, the history of the irresponsible exercise of power, and high-sounding words were used in an attempt to justify the immoral and barbarous instinct for domination. Of all these high-sounding words two still survive: "race" and "nation". They continue to be used as a cloak or justification for the most culpable acts against what, in the last analysis, is the only important thing: the individual human being. Millions of valuable lives were given in order to destroy Nazism, yet racism is still being used to justify the monstrous and immoral aberration of apartheid and it has broken out again in ah its virulence in communist China where it is used to stir men up against their fellow countrymen and against the peoples of other lands.
31. In the past, race and religion were invoked as a pretext for "civilizing" Africa and Asia and, under the cloak of spreading Christianity — whose very essence is love — colonialism and exploitation were introduced surreptitiously and by force of arms.
32. Today, the concept of "the nation" as having absolute dominion places the lust for power above moral law and above human rights. It is cited as justification for war, the arms race, the necessity for atomic testing, the economic or ideological domination of countries which are small or poor, the deprivation of human rights — in short, for injustice both national and international.
33. But there is another kind of history, the new history first chronicled in the United Nations. It is the history of those nations which neither dominate nor seek to dominate; they seek to base their hopes for prosperity and development on solidarity among men living together in free communities. These nations are in the majority. Many of them are continuously becoming poorer, and, paradoxically, their strength in relation to the minority is continuously diminishing; but for that very reason their voices daily acquire more dignity, sincerity and moral worth.
34. Fortunately we are all equal in this place; we sit in alphabetical order and we can say what we think. But little heed is paid to our views when the individual interests of the great Powers are at stake; and so the problems of war and peace and of the just distribution of the fruits of progress, the right to choose one's beliefs, one's ideology and one's way of life are not considered suitable for decision in a democratic way.
35. Perhaps it is to give us a means of escaping from this harsh fact that we are being asked during the present session of the General Assembly to study the peaceful uses of outer space and the exploration and conquest of the moon and other celestial bodies.
36. Oppressed by so many threats and by our own problems, we of the small nations and the poor peoples have very little to say about such subjects, except to shudder at the extent of the power displayed by the great in their space rivalry. In short, in the case of these and many other problems, what we say is not heeded; when it is heeded it is soon forgotten; and what is remembered is not applied by those with the capacity and obligation to do so.
37. The concentration of technological progress and financial resources in a few countries and colonialism, both past and present, provide an explanation of the situation which we have just described. And yet, we have the right to ask ourselves: can it really be, in a world where peace, freedom and justice are values predicated by all, that technology, economic wealth and the incubus of colonialism should count for more and have greater force than moral law, which demands that it be recognized as a sacred and immutable principle in international relations that political communities, because of their inherent dignity, are equal to one another?
38. I come from a small country of 9 million inhabitants. Chile does not attack anyone and has no wish to arm itself to do so. Its ambition is to live in peace and friendly co-operation with all peoples regardless of their regime or system of government. Chile is carrying out a revolution among its people so that justice, freedom, truth and peace may reign in our community.
39. The attainment of the objectives of this revolution is in jeopardy because, throughout the world, justice, freedom, truth and peace are themselves in jeopardy, because no country, least of all a small country, can build its future in a universe of violence, and because efforts are being made to transform our countries into battlefields for ideologies which prevail elsewhere and have no relevance to our circumstances. In short, our revolution is in jeopardy because the very meaning of the word "revolution" has been distorted. Revolution may be defined as direct action to give effect to a resolute will for change in the interests of the people; but, If while we talk about introducing changes for the better in the process of human development, and, at the same time, thousands of millions are being spent on armaments which in turn sow mistrust by constantly upsetting the balance between neighbouring countries, if oligarchies of various flavours are supported and hatred and violence fomented among other peoples, then we are magnifying still further a contradiction which in the end will destroy all possibility of living in peace.
40. Poverty, when it is born of injustice and of inconsistency between the principles preached and actual practice, is not only more frustrating, it is also more explosive. We live in a world where more than 1,200 million human beings are completely illiterate and some 400 million families lack decent housing. Yet, at the same time, $150,000 million are spent annually on armaments and more than 100 million skilled men are employed in manufacturing weapons and in preparing for war. These are facts which we cannot alter: responsibility for doing so lies with the four or five countries which in fact hold the power of decision in the world.
41. Representatives of nations, numbering many millions of people, may agree with what I have said, but, although we all maintain that we are ready to abandon the armaments race, any progress in that direction, if progress there is, will be slow and cautious. In the countries of all the great Powers voices will be raised by those who place prestige, power or profits before everything else.
42. The Treaty of Moscow, which we signed, forbids nuclear tests which could endanger life on this planet. The parties have acted in accordance with their obligations under this Treaty. But they did not undertake not to use atomic bombs against each other or against third parties, or to stop manufacturing or stockpiling these bombs. This is the crux of the problem, since, so long as some countries have this power, the experts say that it will only be a matter of three years and $30 million before many other countries have atomic bombs.
43. This race cannot be halted unless armaments of this type are destroyed. Without a universal law, it will be very difficult if not impossible to prevent nations from invoking the right to possess this weapon in defence of their own integrity and independence, when others are stockpiling it and holding it ready for use. That is why nations have been announcing their entry into the "club" of those possessing this destructive power with violent atomic tests, all of which endanger our peoples.
44. So we shall have to wait for some time before moral indignation is translated into a general agreement to prohibit the manufacture, possession and use of nuclear weapons.
45. Moreover, everything seems to confirm the assumption that mainland China, in the Messianic spirit characteristic of isolated countries, will continue to arm its people, both materially and psychologically.
46. Unfortunately, some time will elapse before there is again a united Germany, born of self- determination and occupying its rightful place in this Organization.
47. Reasons — some of them very Cogent — can always be given for not finding a solution for these problems. It is a race against time, yet progress will be deliberately slow and cautious so that minor interests may be satisfied, petty susceptibilities left unwounded and the impression given that the urgent problems are those of an individual Power, never those of mankind as a whole.
48. We all know — though apparently some have forgotten — that what decides the destiny of the world nowadays Is not the competition between the capitalist and the socialist productive systems, for they will both arrive at the same end without a struggle. What does decide the destiny of the world is the contest between the forces of complacency and material wellbeing and the forces of extreme want, which can see no way out except rebellion. For this reason world peace is in danger wherever the majority are losing hope.
49. The destiny of the world depends on the contest between neo-colonialist concepts in international relations, which survive through sheer inertia, and the determination of the developing nations to rise above the present structures of world economy and achieve progress within their own cultural traditions. Powerful nations are not prepared to sacrifice their privileged position in the system of international trade, which they themselves organized. Nor are they prepared to permit any major changes in international financial systems. That attitude is common to all countries which profit from the present situation, irrespective of ideology.
50. Spurred on by this process, countries that until a short time ago were colonies now want to colonize other nations, either in fact or by introducing their ideas. Like the colonialists of the past, they are not prepared to accept the law and negotiation at the conference table as the foundation of success. This Messianic approach arises from their frustration; the totalitarian identification of national ideals with a single man results from the effort to retrieve a lost cultural identity, while building up a scale of values on an arbitrary basis.
51. The irresponsible use of their strength by some great Powers has had ready Imitators. People who oppose the application of me principle of self- determination, despise negotiation and believe only to achieving a settlement by force of arms, are doing exactly what the colonialists did during the past 150 years. Colonialism was a gift to mankind from the Western world, whose nations exploited the wealth of overseas territories in order to secure their own advancement.
52. The next thing will be trade in nuclear weapons. Who is to prevent it? Is not the expansion of the scale of operations the driving force in business? If the arms trade is based on self-interest and profit
and not on the moral law, why should it not be possible in the future, after some indecision, for atomic weapons also to become an article of trade in a market which is kept in existence by terror, jealousy and, of course, the desire for vast profits? We can see the possibility of this happening and we can see the danger involved. That is why it is urgently necessary to reach agreement on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and we consider this to be the most important of the steps that can be taken immediately in connexion with general disarmament.
53. Despite the circumstances in which we live, I wish once again to reaffirm our faith in the United Nations as the most reliable instrument for international co-operation. In a world characterized by political disorganization and by anarchy in international affairs, this Organization is mankind's only hope of an international community based on peace and progress.
54. Perhaps all that I shall have achieved in addressing this Assembly will have been to bear witness — too ingenuously maybe — to my faith in peace. In doing so, I confess I have in mind Goethe's dictum that man dreams only that he may not cease to see.
55. If we can make the United Nations stronger by causing it to assume greater obligations, then we shall succeed in transforming the uneasy truce of the present day into the permanent peace which so many of us hope for. If we invest the Organization with indisputable moral authority and make it the authentic spokesman for the conscience of mankind, we shall be able to resist the irresponsible exercise of power which endangers world peace. Lamennais said that, where there are strong and weak, rich and poor, liberty enslaves and only the law can give freedom, and those words have never been truer than now in international affairs.
56. A few weeks ago, we in Chile had the high honour of receiving a visit from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant, who came to inaugurate the new building of the Economic Commission for Latin America.
57. On that occasion the Chilean Government took advantage of the opportunity offered by this personal contact with U Thant to assure him that it was entirely in favour of his continuing to hold the office of Secretary-General of the United Nations; considering as it did that he had succeeded in conferring on his office its present prestige and importance and that he had acted with consistent intelligence, decision and resolution. This assurance was spontaneously supported by the Chilean people, who gave the Secretary-General an enthusiastic welcome in the streets as he passed by.
58. Support for U Thant personally is unanimous. What we wish to stress is our full endorsement of his ideas about the international community and the specific proposals he has made for solving its immediate problems, with particular regard to two aspects: first, the recognition of the need to establish justice in the system of economic relations between nations, not only as a prerequisite for development, but also as an essential condition for peace. The creation of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was a substantial step forward in this direction, since it has given us a high-grade instrument for world-wide negotiations. In this connexion that eminent Latin American, Dr. Radi Prebisch, stands out for the tireless efficiency with which he has organized and directed this valuable instrument. The second aspect is his attitude towards the problem of South East Asia, which is the sore tooth of the contemporary world and which, with the entry of mainland China on to the world's stage, represents the greatest challenge to our generation. The fate, the very survival, of our civilization depends on how we deal with this problem. We are aware that the Secretary-General knows and feels these problems as his own. His proposals and his personal intervention in these problems should be fully supported by the great Powers and by all the Members of the United Nations.
59. For this reason, we express the earnest hope that the reasons which prompted his decision not to accept re-election will be overcome. For this same reason, we wish to express our agreement with the main line of action he has taken on these problems on various occasions.
60. We fully agree with the Secretary-General's statement at his admirable lecture at the University of Chile, that;
"The future of the United Nations, therefore, rests to a considerable degree with the small nations — with their sense of responsibility, their independence and objectivity, their dedication to the principles of the Charter and, above all, their collective determination to help attenuate and bring an end to the dangerous tensions which have affected international relations so adversely during the last twenty years."
61. We also agree with the Secretary-General when he said:
"Let me reiterate, therefore, that we must work towards a new world order in which aggressive nationalism or expansionism are banished, as a means of promoting or protecting national interests, where extremism is no longer necessary to support a different point of view, and where diversity can be preserved without resort to prejudice and hatred."
62. Lastly, we are in agreement with the Secretary- General's statement that:
"The greatest obstacle to the realization of the principles of the Charter is the inescapable fact that power politics still operate, both overtly and covertly, in international relations. The concept of power politics, whether as the Instrument of nationalism or of ideological extremism, is the natural enemy of international order as envisaged in the Charter. It is also an expensive, and potentially disastrous, anachronism. Patriotism, national pride or ideological convictions can and must take new and more creative forms than the old concepts of political domination or material power. This is a challenge to statesmanship and political genius in all regions of the world. The basic
ideas and machinery are all there — they await the national policies and actions which will put life and strength into them."
63. What are the conditions which will make it possible to strengthen the United Nations? In our opinion, the first and most fundamental is to consolidate it as a base for the construction of a sound and democratic political organization. This is not the case at present. Moreover, it can be said that we smaller countries are to blame for this. During many sessions of the Assembly, the Council and other activities of the United Nations, we have concentrated our efforts on obtaining machinery for economic aid, on establishing new principles of international trade or on analysing the conditions of the world economy. We have carried out important work in these fields, but we must recognize that its slow progress as compared with what was predicted, depends on political decisions which will have to be adopted by this Organization. The United Nations was conceived as an essentially political institution, and the activity of small countries within it should be aimed at achieving effective political equality and rights in all its Councils, Assemblies and Commissions.
64. We resolutely support the Secretary-General's view that it is the duty of the Organization not only to preserve peace but also to create it. In the process of creating peace, the problem of development seems to us to have first priority. This Organization has devoted much study to it, has set up many Commissions and has given it a forum of great potential value in the Trade and Development Board, So far there have been no agreements but we must recognize that there has been some progress. It is now possible to establish what the developing nations need, in certain decisive sectors at least. What is lacking? Only a decision by the industrialized nations to state how willing they are to meet the development needs of the Third World.
65. What is lacking is a political decision. Here the five or six most powerful nations should come together, leaving aside their particular ideologies, to study and decide upon their participation in changing the process of the developing world. That world already shows distinctive features. There is a real awareness of its problems and the decision to carry out the domestic efforts required; it is a world that is leaving behind its religious differences in so far as they constitute a dividing factor; it is a world which is becoming racially integrated and which is prompted by the urgent necessity to achieve higher technical and cultural levels.
66. Our insistence on the economic work of the United Nations should not cause us to forget that the foundation of equality of opportunity is true, genuine, real political equality. This is true both on the national and the international plane.
67. In our country, we are carrying out a revolution the essential basis of which is the transfer of political power from the small oligarchies to the large popular masses. This transfer is the only solid foundation for economic change. The participation of the people in wealth and in the benefits of culture will be definitive only in so far as the people are able to participate freely and democratically in power and in the making of political decisions.
68. In our view, the problem on the international level expresses itself in similar terms. In so far as the United Nations constitutes a genuine political community and all nations participate in its decisions, we shall build solid foundations for the equality and the participation of all mankind in economic, social and political activities.
69. We believe that that is the road that the new history must take, and we must follow it resolutely. As His Holiness Pope Paul VI said here a year ago:
"... it is easy to affirm that it is towards that new history, a peaceful, a truly and fully human history, as promised by God to men of goodwill, that we must resolutely set out. The roads are already well marked out for you; the first is that of disarmament." [1347th meeting, para. 36.]
70. We all know that the problem of disarmament transcends the problem of stockpiling armaments and that its solution requires an over-all picture of the United Nations.
71. In the first place, we are convinced that the problem of peace-keeping operations should be dealt with immediately, quite apart from disarmament negotiations. Aggression and the arms race are consequences of international political disorganization. The establishment and strengthening of peacekeeping machinery is the best guarantee that power will never again be wrongly used and will demonstrate the willingness of all countries to reduce their own armed forces.
72. In our opinion, all countries are under an obligation towards the United Nations and world peace to place at the disposal of this Organization the material and human resources necessary to ensure the effective protection of the principles of the Charter.
73. We are convinced that we, the small nations, can make an important contribution to the cause of the United Nations and of peace. We represent a large part of the world's population and we have no material interests involved. At the last session of the Assembly, we gave proof of what we are capable of doing when working together, by obtaining almost unanimous approval for a resolution on nonintervention. We hope that, on this occasion and in the future, we may continue to work together constructively, sharing a common inspiration and a common goal.
74. Chile is prepared to make its contribution, within the limits of its capacities, to the creation of a world peace force, since peace is the responsibility of all peoples. Peace is indivisible. If it is endangered in one region, the whole world is threatened. For that reason we accept the necessity of establishing a peace force, solely under the control of the United Nations.
75. In this Assembly, which opened in a gloomy atmosphere, we have listened to proposals for seeking a definite solution to the war in Viet-Nam. So serious is the situation that the replies to these proposals cannot be evasive or simply qualified statements of intentions.
76. Closely linked with this is the principle of the universality of the United Nations, which conditions its real ability to act in areas crucial for world peace and which can affect its own survival. The road is certainly not an easy one, but we are convinced that merely negative attitudes will only increase tension in a world that cannot live in peace if attempts are made to divide it ideologically.
77. We shall not find security in ideological or geographical isolation. We can achieve it if we recognize the essential equality of all men, their right to culture, welfare and modern technology and their duty to submit to a world authority serving the masses of mankind.
78. But a beginning should be made by action in this direction. The best proof of goodwill on the part of the great Powers and of a real intention to disarm would be to initiate a rapid process of arms reduction and to devote a considerable part of the resources released to increasing aid to the developing countries.
79. The approximate figures show that the total expenditure of the industrialized countries for destructive purposes amounts to over $120,000 million. These same countries grant only $11,000 million, mainly on a reimbursable basis, to eliminate want in the developing countries. About 10 per cent! This is a most tangible proof that the developed world still believes that security can be built on arms and not on justice, a false and foolish belief.
80. The developing countries also have their responsibility for the reduction of armaments. To commit a large proportion of their revenue to the acquisition of increasingly costly war materials must certainly weaken their development efforts and means entering into a senseless rivalry that can only aggravate the major problems of the world.
81. Let us all meditate on the enormous responsibilities of a world in which, merely by refraining from producing weapons of mass destruction, we could put into effect eight or nine Marshall Plans every year. The great Powers should use their strength, and the responsibility which it gives them to promote regional agreements on the limitation of armaments, in Latin America for instance, and use their efforts for disarmament by devoting the resources so released to development aid.
82. We earnestly hope that Latin America will soon become a nuclear-free zone. Chile undertakes without reservations to work towards this end and acknowledges the action taken by the nuclear Powers which has enabled some progress to be made in that direction. We hope that we shall soon be able to sign a treaty banishing this peril from our continent.
83. The denuclearization of Latin America will make it possible to denuclearize a large area of the Pacific, an area into which the national interests of other countries of the region extend, including those of Japan, the only country to suffer the cruel experience of nuclear weapons. Thus, a universal declaration of a nuclear-free zone, covering Latin America and the Pacific, would be a contribution to non-proliferation and to the denuclearization of the world, and an example of positive action for peace.
84. I make a fervent appeal for the co-operation of all countries to prevent the involvement of Latin America in the nuclear race. I do so because we have faith in that continent, which has other tasks to fulfil. We have faith in its possibilities of becoming a home for man, where neither hatred, nor lust for power, nor the instruments of violence will prevail. We trust we shall make progress in that direction through the united efforts of the sister nations of the continent and the loyal and effective co-operation of the large nations. We are pledged to make a co-operative effort within our hemisphere proportionate to our vast human and geographic resources and with true participation on the part of all the peoples concerned in the decisions to be made and the benefits to be derived. We seek an alliance for the harmonious economic, social and cultural development of the continent, not a closed alliance but one open to the participation of all the world and especially of Europe, in order that the true ideals of justice and freedom may become a reality in Latin America.
85. We have faith in Latin America because it has been a continent in which prominence has been given not to the individual but to the race, in which men originating from all parts of the world have united in the face of adversity, in which there is discrimination of colour and shape with regard to the arts and landscapes, but never with regard to human beings.
86. There is a growing movement in Latin America to rise above the concept of an archaic nationalism through the integration of our peoples. We are creating conditions such that the frontiers will serve not to isolate us, but to create neighbourhood units which will enrich economic, cultural and political unity in the variety of communities wishing to live in peace and liberty among themselves and with the rest of the world.
87. A month ago, five Latin American Governments, meeting at Bogota, offered for the consideration of the other nations of the continent a set of concrete ideas for speeding the process of our unification, which they considered to be essential to the development of our peoples.
88. On that occasion, the President of Chile said:
"Divided peoples, instead of growing, diminish; they are no longer the creators of history, but rather pawns designed to carry out decisions adopted by others without their presence or their consent. Why are we meeting? We are meeting to create the wide markets necessary to give our economic development the impetus and circumstances required by human activity in this century and at this moment.
"Why are we meeting? We are meeting because we want to see the emergence within our nations of a creative common effort in the sphere of knowledge, which today more than ever before is
the great human adventure. But if this adventure is to be possible, it requires — as the poet said — that we should put our shoulders to the wheel to repel the forces of darkness."
89. This noble enterprise, destined to serve the cause of the liberty and dignity of the American, requires that there should be peace in the world. That peace we must build here and now.