1.Mr. President, allow me to extend to you, both on behalf of the Government of Haiti and on behalf of the delegation I have the honour of heading, our warmest congratulations on your unanimous election to the Presidency of the United Nations General Assembly that has met here for its twenty-third session.
2. It can be said that your unanimous election is a tribute to your outstanding qualities as a veteran diplomat and to your constant zeal as a public servant and an unflagging defender of the ideals and noble aims of our Organization. It not only honours your noble country Guatemala, in which the Mayan civilization, one of the oldest and most original in the world, is still flourishing, but also reassures all small countries, which are encouraged at this moment by the triumph of the vir bonus, the worthy man whose peers have for once set aside all thoughts of power and have chosen him to lead the work of our Assembly towards its’ proper goal. At the outset of that work, Mr. President, I beg you to accept our sincere wishes for success and for the fruitfulness of your stewardship.
3. It would be highly remiss of me to neglect to pay tribute to the outgoing President of the General Assembly, His Excellency Mr.Corneliu Manescu, who with truly remarkable tact has succeeded in reconciling differences, in bringing together opposing views and, without ruffling special interests and sensitive feelings, in serving with a rare elegance the cause of our Organization.
4. 1 take equal pleasure in welcoming, on behalf of the negro people of Haiti, the arrival in the great United Nations family of a small nation of the African continent, the Kingdom of Swaziland. A fertile country with promising natural resources, famous for its rich plains and for its shady and picturesque valleys, a country, unfortunately adjoining formidable South Africa and dangerous Portuguese Mozambique, we trust that it can escape the as yet unexpressed cupidity of its powerful neighbours and, by a swift advance towards civilization, set an inspiring example to our brothers who, a stone’s throw from its borders, suffer the horrors of the iniquitous policy of apartheid and groan under the harsh yoke of colonialism.
5. In his historic message of 22 September 1968, addressed to the Haitian people on the anniversary of his election to the highest State office, Dr. François Duvalier, President for Life of the Republic of Haiti, that surpassing statesman, eminent ethnologist and internationally-famous sociologist, stigmatized in perhaps harsh but certainly objective terms the selfish behaviour of the affluent nations in face of the need for international co-operation, which alone can assist under-developed peoples by freeing them from the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance, to rise from their degradation as civilization’s outcasts to a general well-being, a better prospect of life and culture.
6. Such international co-operation, based on the equality of States in law, reciprocal respect for their major interests, non-intervention by one State or group of States, on whatever pretext, in the affairs of another State in accordance with paragraph 7 of Article 2 of the United Nations Charter, together with the need for all forms of assistance to developing countries — that is the condition sine qua non for economic and social progress, for peace, and for the maintenance of cordial and friendly relations among peoples.
7. Allow me to quote here the noble words that the Haitian Chief of State addressed to the world conscience through his people. After stressing the deep reality of the Haitian civilization and of all small civilizations, he declared:
“If those whom we call upon to trade with us, to collaborate and to co-operate with us, do not heed that call, then even though they pose as benefactors they will have been nothing but the murderers of our soul, nothing but unpardonable criminals. They will have lacked, to co-ordinate their desire to lend aid and their assistance, that great generosity of heart and mind that imperatively commands mankind’s respect.... Thus we unhesitatingly adhere to the truth of this statement, and make it our own: ‘The selfishness of the wealthy nations is more deadly than warfare.’ ”
8. We became aware of the deep tragic cause of inequality when we began to pay heed to the world, to listen to the appeals and also to the answers. Will man be the slave of the things his own genius has created? Will he never rid himself of selfishness and direct human life towards a greater generosity to all those who need it and to those who await useful and desirable help? But “the selfishness of the wealthy nations is more deadly than warfare”.
9. Later, the Haitian Chief of State declared:
“I did not wait for... the splendid recommendations made by the greatest shepherd of this last quarter of the twentieth century, John XXIII, in Gaudium et spes, Mater et magistra, Pacem in terris; I have not waited to respond to the demands of justice and humanity to share out all the earth’s resources for the benefit of mankind; I did not delay to satisfy the demands of that human solidarity and Christian brotherhood that ought to govern relations among political groups, in order that economically-developed States which are in duty bound to assist developing countries shall not seek therein only their political advantage in a desire to dominate. Technical and financial assistance must be provided with the sincerest political altruism, and must be aimed at enabling developing groups to achieve their economic and social advancement through their own efforts.”
10. Thus obstinate disregard of the existing needs for international collaboration; complete lack of understanding; sovereign contempt for small civilizations and, if need be, their extinction; frantic pursuit of power politics; division of the world, whether overt or tacit — let us not quibble over that — into zones of influence that are veritable private preserves; specious justification for the most blatant infractions of the rights of the weak — all those appear to be the main themes of international policy, a simple expression of the needs and interests of the great Powers, and unfortunately sometimes even of satisfaction of the burning desire for prestige.
11. Those dominant themes suffice to clarify the great factors of today: the waging of an undeclared war in Viet-Nam; the military occupation of Czechoslovakia that may bring the member countries of NATO and of the Warsaw Pact into confrontation; the fratricidal war of extermination between the Biafrans and the Federal Government of Nigeria; the chronic crisis in the Middle East; the refusal to sign or to ratify the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; not to mention the frightful spectre of Maoist China, whose gigantic shadow is cast threateningly over its closest neighbours; and, to descend to a more mundane level but one that is none the less vital for the population of the third world, the 40 per cent reduction in assistance aid to under-developed countries made by the American Congress: doubtless due to national needs, including the construction of an anti-missile system.
12. Is it not because of our failure to suppress barely-concealed desires that, twenty-three years after the signing of the San Francisco Treaty, in which the peoples of the globe embodied the aims, standards and guiding principles of a new world in the United Nations Charter, outlawed the use of force, and enshrined the right of the weak nations to exist and advance along the paths of civilization — is it not because of that failure twenty-three years ago that now, more acutely than ever, we are facing the problem of indivisible peace, of that world peace so difficult to safeguard, whether it be in Africa, in South-East Asia, in Europe or in the Middle East?
13. Does it not outrage the most basic principles of international morality, and is it not to ensure the primacy of the imperialist Powers, that an unpardonable war is being waged in Viet-Nam in which both sides are using the apocalyptic methods of destruction invented by modern science, a war that continues without truce or respite, piling up irreparable destruction and devastation and destroying more and more human life, without heed to the appeals for peace made by the greatest international and spiritual leaders, while around the negotiating table at Paris the same arguments are tirelessly repeated, the two adversaries being highly encouraged by the fact that the talks have not been broken off?
14. Should we pass a specific United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a halt in the aerial bombardment of North Viet-Nam, as has been suggested by U Thant, and require in exchange — we trust in a spirit of impartiality — an end to the infiltration of North Viet-Namese forces south of the demilitarized zone? Such an initiative, inspired by a keen sense of responsibility and by a truly praiseworthy impulse of generosity, would deserve encouragement even if it were no more than a pious hope fated to join in the archival dust the many resolutions that for over fifteen years have been adopted in condemnation of the still flourishing policy of apartheid. Although no doubt such a resolution would be a means of moral pressure, would it not emphasize once more the impotence of our Organization in face of the firm stand of the great and medium Powers?
15. As for the worse than tragic situation of Biafra, which is reported to be shaping into real genocide, I must confess that it touches a chord of deep sympathy among us Haitians.
16. We cannot refrain from expressing our sympathy for the Biafrans who die by thousands every day for the sake of their people and for the preservation of their culture, and whose ancestors, the fierce Ibos, played an important part in our glorious epic of 1804.
17. Without wishing to interfere, even verbally, in the domestic affairs of a sovereign people, and with a profound obeisance to the praiseworthy efforts of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie that have drawn the attention of international public opinion to the martyrdom of an innocent people, we feel from our own experience of the inadequacy of the regional organizations’ resources that, if the confrontation threatens to continue any longer, the United Nations must, to fulfil its universal mission set forth in Articles 11, 12 and 35 of the Charter, take up this question that is so vital for the future of the African continent.
18. We take the additional liberty of expressing the hope that the Nigerian Government will be magnanimous in victory, that the Commission of Observers appointed to follow the army’s progress will be able to report on its moderation, and that Biafra’s contribution, made in complete freedom and with full security for its inhabitants, will be an enriching experience, both cultural and economic, for that Government.
19. Recent events in Czechoslovakia, to quote U Thant’s very strong words, “have poisoned the atmosphere throughout the world".
20. The inconceivable deployment of military forces by one of the super-Powers, accompanied by its four Warsaw Pact allies, against a loyal member of its own bloc that is guilty only of an attempt to liberalize its régime, has brought forth completely unfavourable reactions in every political sphere — apart from a few exceptions that need no explanation.
21. Would it not be appropriate to recall in this connexion the Haitian Chief of State’s vigorous condemnation of the violation of the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of a small country? Dr. François Duvalier stated:
“The brutal occupation of Czechoslovakia by Soviet Russia and its allies arouses my profound indignation and that of the Haitian people, which is so proud of its independence and its sovereignty. That act of international banditry should serve as a lesson to the economically weak nations in the light of basic and immutable historical laws, and should help them to regain their senses. I believe that the same holds true for the very future of the United Nations, for the hopes for peace and for the economic and social advancement of the peoples of the world; since for several years the permanent members of the Security Council have themselves been the systematic violators of the fundamental principles of the San Francisco Charter—the legal equality of States, the self-determination of peoples, and non-intervention.”
22. However, it was all to no avail; the monolithic integrity of communist doctrine as conceived by Stalin had to be upheld; deviationism and the infiltration of a certain Western-style liberalism had to be repelled and the strategic outposts guarding the approaches to “Holy Russia" maintained.
23. The Soviet Union could cite many extenuating circumstances: the operation was nearly bloodless; the team of Czechoslovak leaders — the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Party Chief — were not removed from office; talks were under way on complete or partial withdrawal from Czechoslovak territory.
24. The consequences of the Prague action were nevertheless disastrous: the stiffening of NATO, the resumption of the cold war, condemnation of the act by many European communist parties; and — a noteworthy fact — it was an
additional proof of the deep antithesis between the political philosophy of the capitalist and socialist systems, which thinkers of goodwill had been hoping would grow towards each other and meet half way.
25. In the final analysis, unfortunate Czechoslovakia, left to its own resources, can only fight a delaying action. Sooner or later, and sooner rather than later, it will have to kneel and submit to the harsh law of the stronger.
26. These serious crises, that can at any moment lead to widespread conflicts ending in mankind’s collective suicide, the many other problems that are still pending, such as the persistent and shameful policy of apartheid, the powder-kegs of Korea and the Middle East, the aggressive policy of Red China, the fruitless fight of the peoples of South West Africa and the peoples under Portuguese domination for their right to life and freedom — do all these crises justify those pessimists who believe that the United Nations is just
like the former League of Nations, fit at best to be interred in "the purple shroud in which the dead gods sleep”?
27. A more realistic view of international life reveals to us that the United Nations, although it has many shortcomings, has acted and can again act when circumstances permit — in particular agreement, lassitude or uneasiness among the great nations as a salutary buffer against the unleashing of power politics, safeguarding that peace which is so necessary to meet the growing needs of the unfortunate people of the third world and to fulfil their legitimate desires for economic and social progress.
28. The Organization, with its specialized agencies and with the neutrality made presumptive by its near-universality, is still the ideal meeting place where the great Powers could, without losing face, sit down at the conference table and debate the conditions for re-establishing that armed coexistence which is, in spite of everything, better than local confrontations that may lead to widespread war with, on the horizon, the deadly threat of the atomic mushroom.
29. Our Organization played its part well a few years ago — with the necessary agreement of the great Powers, of course—during the unfortunate Suez affair: it deployed its blue-helmeted men between adversaries poised for war, and helped to preserve the status quo. Did it not accomplish that same mission with equal felicity in Korea, Cyprus and the Congo?
30. We other nations, we small Powers, are infinitely grateful to it for that, and we give full credit to its salutary moderating action. Why can that action not be exerted with equal success in the numerous “hot spots” on the globe — for example along the demilitarized zone between the two Viet-Nams, and along the line separating the Federal Republic of Germany from Czechoslovakia, where the troops of the NATO countries and of the Warsaw Pact
countries confront each other, in order to forestall the major incident that seems to be forecast by the discussions on Articles 106 and 107 of the Charter and the unequivocal statements being issued by the Atlantic Powers?
31. That is the meaning I should willingly give to the repeated attempts made by U Thant, the tireless traveller in the cause of peace, whose statements, sometimes irritating to the States concerned, have nevertheless captured the
attention of all peace-loving peoples.
32. That is how I should like to interpret his latest proposal aimed at bringing about during the present General Assembly session a meeting between the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the four great Powers — the United
States of America, the Soviet Union, France and the United Kingdom — that would pave the way to a summit meeting of Heads of State to examine the sources of tension and reverse the deterioration in East-West relations that has arisen because of the events in Czechoslovakia and of the no less disquieting Viet-Nam war [see A/7201/Add.1,para.169].
33. Whatever the fate of the Secretary-General’s proposal, I ask his leave to congratulate him on it publicly, on behalf of all weak nations. Your voice, Mr. Secretary-General, speaks for the conscience of the world; it puts into words the profound aspirations to that “international security” without which a mad humanity would founder in the hatred and chaos that herald irreparable world catastrophes. May Your Excellency continue to make proposals, to plead for moderation, and to appeal for a just and lasting peace without fear of playing Cassandra and of being for ever the solitary voice crying in the wilderness! “Sound forth,” said the poet. “Sound forth, clarions of thought!”
34. I should be remiss if I did not mention the incalculable services rendered by the United Nations to Member States through its specialized agencies—such as UNESCO, FAO, WHO and the Special Fund — through the services of trained and devoted experts supplied simply for the asking to under-developed countries, by its great understanding of the special situations created by natural disasters and especially by the feeling of universality that it helps to create in its seminars and in its study courses for the young, which are a means of recruiting tomorrow’s leaders. Those future leaders will be increasingly convinced that the civilization of mankind is the product of contributions from all civilizations, large and small, and that, in the words spoken by the lamented Senator Robert Kennedy in addressing the students of the University of Cape Town, in South Africa, that bastion of human injustice: “Only earthbound man still clings to the dark and poisonous superstition that his world is bounded by the nearest hill, his universe ended at the river shore, his common humanity enclosed in the tight circle of those who share his town and views and the colour of his skin.”
35. The negro Republic of Haiti, the world’s first independent and sovereign negro State, an offshoot of the African stock thrust into the heart of the Caribbean Sea, lost amidst that Anglo-Saxon and Hispanic America from which it has none the less never withheld its expressions of sympathy and deep solidarity, even at the risk of its national existence; that country, proud of its ethnic origins but firmly attached to its French culture, represented for a long time a real challenge to the slave-owning Powers of the period.
36. Think for a moment how our Republic, which emerged triumphant from its struggle for independence in 1804 after meeting and defeating the Spanish and English forces summoned to the rescue by the Great Whites, after driving into the sea the 25,000 soldiers of General Leclerc, Napoleon Bonapart’s own brother-in-law, recruited from the most seasoned battalions of the Italian campaign — think how our Republic was forced to develop over the next half century in the midst of the English, French and Spanish Antilles where slavery was rampant, and so near to the United States of America, where the great Abraham Lincoln did not free the Negroes until 1863, during the bloody Civil War.
37. The Republic of Haiti was the black sheep, the shunned plague carrier, the State whose first steps must not be assisted because its prosperity — or, I should say, its very relative progress — would have made it a dangerous cynosure for its racial brothers in America and everywhere else.
38. Thus it was that the yellow journalism of the great countries of the time acquired the habit — and generates terrible force — of depicting our manners and our customs, the smallest details of our national life, in a disgusting light, of ridiculing our folklore, of discrediting our most progressive Heads of State: Faustin Soulongue, Henri Christophe, Félicité Salomon Jeune, Dr. François Duvalier, to mention only a few. Thus they acquired the habit of stifling the most legitimate aspirations of a country which, like its sister American republics, had experienced growing pains but was struggling — and is still struggling — to vanquish amidst indifference, misunderstanding and widespread hostility the age-old evils that beset the third world: poverty, ignorance and disease.
39. And yet, despite all those difficulties, my country’s history is one of the most arresting in all the Americas. Its untiring devotion to the cause of freedom has never been questioned; its desire to attain the heights where brotherhood and solidarity prosper has always impelled it to come to the aid of oppressed peoples.
40. As irrefutable proof there stands Savannah, Georgia, in the United States of America, where more than 600 Haitians — among them Henri Christophe, the future king of Haiti — paid with their blood the price of Haitian brotherhood in achieving the emancipation of the thirteen British colonies of America. Further eloquent proof is the grateful testimony of Simon Bolivar, the Immortal Liberator, to the second Chief of State of the world’s first Black republic, who had made him welcome in Haiti and who, after his early set-back, had encouraged, armed and supplied him for his great venture of freeing from the Spanish yoke the people now called “Bolivians”. He wrote:
“In my proclamation to the inhabitants of Venezuela, and in the decrees I must issue, I do not know how I can fully express my feelings towards Your Excellency, nor how I can hand down to posterity a fitting monument to
your philanthropy”.
41. None the less, when the Congress of Panama, the first Pan-American congress, was held in 1826, Haiti was not invited. Was it through fear of irritating the European Powers? Was it — incredible though this may seem — through an oversight? No one really knows. The United States of America was allowed to send an observer to the Congress, but not my country. Such is the great lesson that history — I repeat, history — has taught my compatriots and my brothers in race.
42. Fortunately, however, both private and international attitudes have changed. Haiti’s independence was recognized first by France and then by the European Powers and by all the world. It has throughout a hundred and fifty years of history devoted itself to establishing friendly and cordial relations with all its sister Latin-American republics, and believes it has succeeded. Haiti has been a member of the Pan-American Union, and is justifiably proud of belonging to that Organization of American States whose
new Secretary-General, Mr. Galo Plaza, an outstanding statesman and citizen of America, it has welcomed with the honours due to a Head of State. Furthermore, we are experiencing a great cultural ferment, an interaction of civilizations without distinction of race or language; and, like our brothers in the United States of America and other countries in the hemisphere, we feel we have the right to proclaim that “We too are America”.
43. I am therefore perfectly happy to state the following facts:
(1) My country is one of the poorest in the Western hemisphere, with a high population density and one of the lowest incomes per head in the world.
(2) Of all the American countries — aside from a loan for eradicating malaria, one for supplying drinking-water, one from HACHO, a fourth for the construction of a small veterinary school, and lastly a loan of approximately 800,000 dollars to meet the expenses of a technical mission of thirty-one experts from the Organization of American States — the total being relatively modest — Haiti remains the country which in loans or gifts has received the least amount of assistance from the Alliance for Progress.
(3) Haiti’s economy still feels, and will continue to feel for a long time, the devastating results of the three hurricanes Flora, Cleo and Inez, that struck it within less than two years, destroying livestock and crops and wrecking the hopes of our worthy farmers. Haiti stands in real need of assistance.
(4) Eight armed invasions of its territory, true acts of indirect aggression fomented abroad by false propaganda, have made Haiti spend special funds on national defence. Furthermore, those invasions have always occurred during the coffee harvest or the tourist season, both of which they have hindered but which they will never wipe out.
44. The President for Life of the Republic has never denied the value of open and effective collaboration by the great international bodies at all levels in achieving the goals and meeting the priorities set forth in his plan of action for 1968-1969. On 16 July 1968 he wrote to Mr. Galo Plaza:
“The transformation of the environment, the improvement of the infrastructure, the raising of the standard of living and economic growth, which is a self-evident increment, are all phenomena that can be brought about through the two concurrent forces of national effort and foreign aid.”
45. The present Secretary-General of the Organization of American States — whom the American nations remember for his forceful intervention when the United States Congress proposed making a heavy cut in the amount of aid to be allocated to the under-developed countries — replied:
“It is a striking coincidence that at the present time a technical assistance mission of the Organization of American States is being set up for Haiti, some of whose members are already at Port-au-Prince. That will give us an opportunity to work more closely together towards the social and economic betterment of Haiti.”
46. Should our hopes, notwithstanding those promising beginnings, turn out futile because — as always — of political interference or any other unforeseen circumstance — well, President Duvalier has already summoned his people to the great adventure of collective effort and has said:
“Because I know that in 1968 the principle of total sovereignty is not honoured as it should be, the illusion harboured by the pseudo-developed nations that only imitation can serve a developing nation is still present and active among us. Copy, copy everything: political, administrative and legal structures, methods of action; copy until you go mad. No, no! How true it is that ‘the selfishness of the wealthy nations is more deadly than
warfare’! We will struggle through. That must be an article of faith for every Haitian child, for every Haitian woman, for every Haitian man: we will struggle through. We will struggle through to the end in an atmosphere poisoned by selfishness, by prejudice, by the most indescribable and futile hatred, cruelty and violence. No! We do not need to copy anyone. No. Our doctrine, faith and action are in our nationalism.”
47. As for the professional detractors of the Haitian Government — political exiles desiring, solely in order to satisfy their own sordid interests, to impugn the achievements of a revolution fought for the great working masses, virtual "Kings in exile" allied to faithless and lawless mercenaries and to confirmed racists like the unspeakable Graham Greene, who refuses to recognize the least virtue or merit in black or coloured peoples — we would gladly leave them to their poisonous evil-doing, to the ignoble battle they wage against a small people armed only with its boundless trust in its leader and in the justice of its cause, were we not compelled to denounce once and for all the lies and crimes that disgrace them for ever in the eyes of posterity.
48. Does an emergency arise in the north-west of our country, due to the drought from which all the Latin-American countries have been suffering and already brought under control by the Haitian Government with the help of international bodies? A press agency paid with traitor’s gold quickly publishes to the four corners of the earth the news that a famine worse than that in Biafra is ravaging Haiti, and that parents are being forced to sell their children for forty cents a piece. But who buys them?
49. Did the President for Life of the Republic commute the death sentences passed against the conspirators captured with their weapons on them during the piratical invasion of Haiti last May 20, having been cravenly abandoned to their fate? The foreign opposition immediately warned against a sham gesture of clemency by the Haitian Chief of State.
50. John David Knox, a British citizen convicted of conspiracy against Haitian State security who had calculated that his hotel was within machine-gun range of the residence of the Chief of State and his family — was he pardoned and delivered to his ambassador after being sentenced to death? According to the enemies of Haiti, that was proof of a wicked ruse devised by the country’s leaders; or maybe — who knows? — it was a violation of human rights. I could go on; but I will not.
51. As for them, however: they have the right to drop bombs on innocent peoples and make uncountable victims. They have the right to pillage crops. They have the right to slaughter poor and peaceful peasants. They have the right to execute defenceless prisoners. They have the right to gun down officials of the Haitian Government. They have the right to incite the people to revolution. They have the right to cover the Chief of State with calumny, and to assassinate a Haitian consul on foreign soil after leading him into a cowardly trap.
52. However, I think I have said enough on that depressing subject. The wisest course is to leave those gentlemen to their guilty consciences. May they rest in peace!
53. As I have done each year as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Haiti, on behalf of His Excellency Dr. François Duvalier, Life President of Haiti — its eighth, according to our country’s firmly-established tradition — I am proud and happy to affirm the Haitian Government’s most complete adherence to the principles and noble purposes of the United Nations.
54. Haitian democracy, applied and practised on behalf of the people, for the people and by the people, who with weapons at the ready stand guard round their Chief of State and the achievements of his revolution, believes in the timeless values enshrined in the Charter signed at San Francisco. It believes in respect for the dignity of the human personality, and in the right of individuals and peoples to freedom. Though firmly attached to the concept of national sovereignty and independence both political and economic, it does not deny the fact of interdependence among States. Along with all countries that desire to maintain peace, the indispensable condition for economic and social progress, it hopes that the great Powers will become fully aware of their historical responsibilities towards the civilized world, that they will practise international co-operation in a spirit of tolerance and good-neighbourliness, and that they will eschew the use of force and all means of pressure.
55. It also hopes that, in addition, our Organization may become an effective instrument for safeguarding peace and international security, even at the cost of amending its Charter, which is somewhat outdated by the demands of the atomic era, so that mankind’s adventurous climb towards the light may fully succeed.