77. Mr. President, first permit me to congratulate you on your election as President of the twenty-first session of the General Assembly. The delegation of the Ukrainian SSR wishes you success in this high office and expresses the hope that in entering the third decade of its activities the General Assembly, under your guidance at this session, will succeed, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, in so acting as to make a tangible contribution to the performance of the tasks confronting it.
78. The general political discussion, in the course of which the Governments of the States Members of this most authoritative international Organization present their positions and their points of view on the world situation, provides an opportunity for more or less accurately taking the pulse of the political life of our planet and sampling the international atmosphere in which the peoples and States are living at the moment in question.
79. The last two decades have been marked by changes of vast scale and depth in the social and economic life of many peoples and in the relations between States and peoples. In our day almost all the peoples of the world have become active participants in international life. More favourable conditions have arisen for the systematic conversion into reality of the principles of sovereign equality of States, equality of rights and self-determination of peoples, good-neighbourly relations, non-interference in the internal affairs of other States and peaceful coexistence of States with different social and economic systems.
80. Nevertheless, those who are trying to impede the process of the world’s social and political rejuvenation and to undermine the national liberation movement of its peoples are gambling on a policy of force and are even resorting to armed aggression and to acts of war. They are thereby demonstrating their desperation and inability to understand aright the relationship of forces in the world arena.
81. In its vain and doomed attempts to rescue the ruling clique of its Saigon hirelings the United States has grossly and unceremoniously interfered in the internal affairs of South Viet-Nam. Having broken the 1954 Geneva Agreements, the United States went to Viet-Nam as an aggressor to strangle the freedom and independence of the Viet-Namese people. The interference of the United States in Viet-Nam was subsequently converted into open, armed aggression, which the people of Viet-Nam have countered with their own unshakable will to defend freedom and independence. That people is invincible, for there is today no force which could overcome the sacred striving for freedom and independence.
82. In carrying out their aerial bombardment of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, die leaders of the United States are assuming a heavy responsibility for the escalation of the war in Viet-Nam and for all the possible consequences thereof.
83. We wish to declare, clearly and categorically, that by its attack on the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam American imperialism has thrown down the gauntlet to all socialist countries. The Viet-Namese people, by their determination and resoluteness, are not only defending their
national rights, but are also making an important contribution to the struggle of the countries which belong to the world socialist system and of all peoples for peace, independence, democracy and socialism. The help given by the socialist countries to heroic Viet-Nam is and will continue to be given in the form and on the scale which the Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam deems necessary.
84. The people of the Ukraine, who lost several millions of their sons and daughters in the war against the Hitlerite invaders, understand the feelings of the freedom-loving Viet-Namese people and expresses to them their fraternal solidarity. The Government and people of the Ukrainian SSR fully support all the measures taken by the Government of the Soviet Union in giving support and comprehensive assistance to the Viet-Namese people in their struggle against foreign aggression and we regard our contribution to that assistance as our international duty.
85. By its actions the United States has not only encroached upon the independence and freedom of the Viet-Namese people, but is also creating an increasingly serious threat to world peace. In the course of the present debate we have once again heard the demand of the peace-loving peoples for an end to the United States aggression, for die elimination of the hotbed of war in South-East Asia, for the relaxation of tension and for the normalization of international relations.
86. The United States has of late been talking hypocritically about “unconditional” peace negotiations. The international community has more than once had an opportunity of realizing that each “new” variant of such proposals is put forward at a time when Washington is getting ready for the next stage of escalation.
87. Nor, in recent days, has there been any lack of statements by representatives of the United States some of them from this rostrum about alleged United States efforts at negotiation. The United States representative has spoken here about the next “peace” initiative; but Mr. Goldberg had hardly left this rostrum when another statesman of his country, the Secretary of Defense, Mr. McNamara, announced a 30 per cent increase in the production of military aircraft. We ask whether this simultaneous timing is accidental; or have these new aircraft perhaps become necessary in order to deliver to Viet-Nam the olive branch of peace which was recently produced with such pomp by the United States representative in this hall? The world knows very well what the American aircraft are delivering to Viet-Nam.
88. Calls for a breakthrough and for raising the blood stakes in this insane gamble have been issuing with increasing frequency of late from the mouths of influential politicians and military' leaders in the United States. Things have come to such a pass that there are calls for the use of atomic weapons against the Viet-Namese people, for a blockade of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, for a “drive to the north” to be started, and so forth. As for the United States Government, the impression is being created that, as it loses its international prestige and falls into a state of international isolation, it is trying to rely on extreme right-wing adventurist circles and is ever more frequently being led along by them. But to act like this means taking the road of further recklessness and exposing the whole world to a most serious menace.
89. The United States has recently been making a great deal of noise about the coming conference in Manila; but, if we bear in mind that only countries which are in one way or another involved in the aggression of the United States of America against Viet-Nam will be taking part in that conference, it can be asserted beforehand that this will be just a conclave of aggressors meeting to devise further plans for waging war in Viet-Nam.
90. Yet there does exist a just political basis for a genuine solution to the Viet-Namese question: it is contained in the well-known proposals of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam and of the National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam, proposals fully consistent with the 1954 Geneva Agreements.
91. As the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam declared on 2 September 1967: “Our people are profoundly dedicated to the cause of peace, but genuine peace, not peace on the American model, under the heel of American aggressors. Our people understand full well that genuine peace can ensue only when independence and freedom have been secured.”
92. We are convinced that the heroic people of Viet-Nam, supported by the peoples of all the socialist countries and by the freedom-loving peoples of other countries, will ultimately be victorious, will free their land from the domination and interference of the United States imperialists and become sole master of their own fate.
93. The Government of the Ukraine and the Ukrainian people attach great importance to the problem of ensuring lasting peace and security in Europe, where the conflagrations of world wars have twice broken out in our century.
94. Today, as thirty years ago, the land in West Germany is again quaking under the caterpillar treads of the tanks and under the gun-carriage wheels of the resurrected Bundeswehr, already numbering more than half a million officers and men.
95. This, the most powerful army in Western Europe, provides the military backing for a policy of revanchism and revision of the results of the Second World War. As Mr. P. E. Shelesta, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Ukraine, stressed in his report at the Party’s Twenty-third Congress: “The Bonn rulers officially proclaim their intention of abolishing the German Democratic Republic, brazenly call for the revision of the existing boundaries in Europe and openly lay claim to parts of Polish, Czechoslovak and Soviet territory. The West German militarists, with the support of the United States of America, are straining after nuclear armaments. These intentions reflect the criminal plans of international imperialism to unleash a new world war.”
96. The Government of the Ukrainian SSR draws attention to the fact that the revanchists in the Federal Republic of Germany are referring to the western parts of the Ukraine as a kind of bargaining counter. The Ukrainian people, which along with the peoples of all the socialist countries, have achieved the unification of all their lands,
firmly declare that the question of their boundaries in Europe has been finally and irrevocably settled.
97. The reckless plans of the Bonn revanchists are openly supported and encouraged by the governing circles of the United States of America. The world has been witness to the formation of a new military-political axis between Washington and Bonn. This is one of the factors most dangerous to the cause of peace. At one end of that axis lies the atomic bomb, at the other the unappeased revanchism of the German imperialists.
98. It is said that the problem of European security has many components; but essentially it reduces to the creation in Europe of an agreed system which would not permit the outbreak of a new war.
99. An important problem in the achievement of European security is the peaceful settlement of the German question, i.e., the signing of peace treaties with both the German States existing in the centre of Europe, the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany. The existence of two German States on the European continent is a political reality of post-war Europe and there is no escape from it.
100. A realistic programme inspired by concern for the security of peoples and the strengthening of peace in Europe and throughout the world was put forward at the Bucharest Conference of the Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Treaty States. The socialist countries advanced the following constructive proposals: the simultaneous dissolution of the military alliances existing in Europe or, at least, as a start, the dissolution of the military organizations of NATO and the Warsaw Treaty; the abolition of foreign bases and the withdrawal of troops from foreign territories; an agreed reduction in numbers in the armed forces of both German States; the creation of nuclear-free zones; the denial to the Federal Republic of Germany of access to nuclear weapons in any form; the recognition of existing boundaries in Europe; the continuation of efforts to seek a German peace settlement based on recognition of the existence of two German States.
101. To anyone familiar with the situation on the European continent it must be obvious that this is a constructive and business-like programme, formulating in a reasoned and clear manner the principal means of strengthening security in Europe. We note with satisfaction the growth of a trend in Europe towards removing the obstacles of the development of Pan-European co-operation and settling controversial questions in a spirit of mutual understanding. If all the European States were to show their readiness to reach mutually acceptable solutions, the problems of collective security in Europe could be solved.
102. The aggravation of the international situation brought about by the aggressive actions of the United States of America in South-East Asia, and the intensification of West German revanchism and militarism, which is straining after nuclear weapons, have inevitably had their effect also on the course of negotiations in the whole field of disarmament. The Ukrainian delegation wishes to point out that the work of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament has, for that reason, failed this year again to yield any encouraging results. We have come to the conclusion that the Western Powers participating in the work of that Committee have not shown that they are anxious for constructive negotiations about disarmament. There is, in particular, convincing evidence of this in the position of those States on the question of concluding a treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
103. The Soviet draft treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons indicates the right way to solve this problem. The chief merit of that draft treaty lies in the fact that it closes all loopholes for the further spread of nuclear weapons. It provides not only for prohibition of the transfer of nuclear weapons to the national control of non-nuclear States, but also for the closing of all channels for the proliferation of nuclear weapons, either directly or indirectly, in any form whatsoever.
104. The greatest danger in this respect lies in the Bonn revanchists' atomic pretensions, encouraged by the Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom. Precisely this is the main reason why to this day the world still has no agreed treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
105. In this connexion it is extremely important to call on all States not to take any steps which would hinder the attainment of agreement on this most important and urgent matter. It is here that the delegation of the Ukrainian SSR sees importance and value in the draft resolution proposed by the Soviet Union, on the renunciation by States of actions hampering the conclusion of an agreement on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons [A/6398].
106. The prevention of the proliferation of nuclear weapons would to some extent limit the nuclear arms race and create the possibility of reducing the threat of a nuclear war. A point of great significance is that the solution of the problem of non-proliferation could offer a promising start towards the solution of other disarmament problems.
107. One of the aspects of disarmament is the problem of dismantling military bases and withdrawing foreign troops from territories. These bases and armed forces are used in interests alien to peace, as a means of exerting pressure on peace-loving States and often also as a means of direct armed intervention in their internal affairs. Recent events have shown that the aggressive actions of the United States on the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, in Latin America and in other parts of the world are intimately connected with the use of American armed forces and military bases on foreign territories, in particular on the territory of South Viet-Nam and in Taiwan, Thailand, Okinawa and the Caribbean region.
108. The network of American and British military bases stretches many thousands of miles from those countries. These bases are strong points of colonialism and neocolonialism and create a threat to the security and freedom of peoples.
109. The Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, held in Cairo in October 1964, declared its full support for countries striving to achieve the evacuation of foreign bases from their territories and called upon all States maintaining troops on bases in other countries to withdraw them without delay.
110. The idea of dismantling foreign bases was reflected also in resolution 2105 (XX) adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations at its twentieth session, on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, which contains an appeal to all colonial Powers “to dismantle the military bases installed in colonial Territories and to refrain from establishing new ones”.
111. The Ukrainian delegation considers that the proposal of the delegation of the Soviet Union regarding the dismantling of foreign military bases in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America deserves most serious consideration. Agreement on this proposal would be an important contribution towards strengthening peace on our planet and would create favourable conditions for the solution of other problems of general and complete disarmament.
112. The world felt the direct threat inherent in the existence of foreign military bases even more acutely after the recent disaster involving an American bomber, with nuclear bombs on board, near the Spanish village of Palomares. What happened near the Spanish coast could, in certain circumstances, become the starting point for the development of extremely serious events. The actions of the United States Air Force are creating a risk of a purely accidental explosion of an atomic weapon.
113. Despite the Palomares incident, the United States is today still continuing the practice of flying strategic aircraft carrying nuclear weapons outside its own boundaries. Such flights must be discontinued, for they create a threat not only to the populations of the countries over which they are made, but also to many neighbouring Stales.
114. The aggravation of international tension and the growing risk of an outbreak of thermonuclear war accentuate even more strongly the necessity of solving the problems of disarmament. The peoples of the world expect, not a repetition of the past, but a movement forward; they are looking for practical action. They are not looking for vague documents which do not go beyond general appeals and pious wishes, but for concrete, tangible action.
115. Nearly six years have gone by since the General Assembly, on the initiative of the Soviet Union, adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. They have been years of rapid disintegration of the colonial system under the pressure of the liberation struggle of the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The United Nations has played a definite role in this by giving political and moral support to the struggle of the colonial peoples for their freedom and national independence.
116. New States have recently emerged in Latin America and Africa: Guyana, Botswana and Lesotho. The Ukrainian SSR congratulates the peoples of those countries on having established their national independence and wishes them success in building a new life for themselves.
117. While noting the indisputable achievements on the road to decolonization, we cannot but note at the same time that at present the tempo of liberation of peoples from colonial oppression has perceptibly slowed down, by comparison with the year when the Declaration was
adopted. There are still many millions of people under the colonial yoke.
118. Colonialism is feverishly resisting and in several parts of the world has gone over to the counter-offensive. The colonialists of Portugal and South Africa are showing particularly stubborn resistance to the peoples’ struggle for independence. They have taken shelter in the last ditches of colonialism and now, with the recklessness of the doomed, they are challenging the imperative of our time and the conscience of mankind.
119. In their aggressive, colonialist activities against the peoples, the imperialists are bound together by mutual guarantees. Portugal and the racialists of South Africa are getting help and support from NATO and particularly from the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Mr. Wilson’s Government, with the support of the United States, is taking the line of intensifying British “responsibility East of Suez’’. While holding forth about this “responsibility”, the British colonialists are carrying out one punitive operation after another in Southern Arabia and Oman and are putting into effect their plans for the conversion of a number of islands in the Indian Ocean into military bases.
120. As for the Southern Rhodesian adventure, it surely proves that there is a conspiracy of imperialists and colonialists that goes far beyond the conspiracy between London and Salisbury. Relying on then last bastions in Africa - the Republic of South Africa and the Portuguese colonies- the imperialists are now extending this reserve of the “free world” by incorporating Southern Rhodesia into it.
121. In its resolution 2105 (XX), the General Assembly at its twentieth session declared colonialism a crime against humanity. The present session of the General Assembly must clearly and unequivocally proclaim that the further existence of colonialism is a direct negation of those lofty ideals and purposes which this Organization was created to achieve and that the policy of colonialism contradicts the spirit and purposes of the United Nations and is therefore a direct violation of its Charter.
122. Colonialism is a crime not only against humanity, but also against peace. Our Organization has declared, in many of its resolutions, including those of the Security Council, that colonialism threatens peace and security, violates peace. The very fact that the Security Council is involved in considering colonial problems is surely evidence showing that colonialism brings with it the aggravation of international tension, a threat to peace and the actual violation of peace-that is, aggression.
123. Our Organization has recognized the legitimacy of the struggle waged by peoples under colonial domination for the attainment of their right to self-determination and independence. It has also proposed to all States that they give material and moral help to the national liberation movements in colonial territories. That appeal must be heeded. It must be supported by all who genuinely stand for the freedom of peoples and oppose oppression. The delegation of the Ukrainian SSR considers that the United Nations must assist the colonial peoples to win their freedom and independence.
124. We are not among those who cherish the illusion that the imperialists will voluntarily give up intervening in the domestic affairs of other States. By its very nature imperialism stands in the way of the sovereignty of States and peoples, and the policy of intervention, which is carried out in various forms, derives from the very essence of imperialism. But the peoples of the whole world can and must, through their struggle, build insuperable obstacles to the struggle against imperialist intervention and must uphold the principles of the equality of rights and the sovereignty of States. This, as we see it, was the Soviet Union’s purpose in raising at this session of the General Assembly the question of the status of the implementation of the Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States [A/6397], approved by the General Assembly in 1965 [resolution 2131 (XX)].
125. We have already referred to the consequences of American imperialist intervention in the domestic affairs of the Viet-Namese people. Another example of armed intervention by the United States was provided by the well- known events in the Dominican Republic. The United States occupation, thinly veiled as assistance by the so-called inter-American armed forces, again showed the true value of the demagogy about respecting the independence and sovereignty of countries “south of the Rio Grande”.
126. The United States is still carrying out its economic blockade of revolutionary Cuba, sending saboteurs and murderers to the island and committing armed provocations against Cuba in the region of the American base at Guantanamo. Cuba is offering resolute resistance to United States intervention in its internal affairs. On its side it has the sympathy and support of peoples throughout the world including the Ukrainian people, which is bound to the heroic Cuban people by close ties of friendship and revolutionary solidarity.
127. In the countries of Latin America intervention by the United States takes a wide variety of forms. The resolution of the United States House of Representatives of 20 September 1965 “legalizes” both indirect and direct intervention in the internal affairs of other States and peoples.
128. Intervention in the internal affairs of other States has become a common phenomenon in the foreign policy of the United States of America. Appeals for intervention in the internal affairs of other countries and peoples are heard from the lips of prominent statesmen and politicians of that country. We have in mind, in particular, their speeches at meetings of traitors to the Ukrainian people who fled, together with the German fascists, from Ukrainian soil and found a haven in the United States of America and in Western Germany. In such speeches they express “solidarity” with the actions of war criminals, the erstwhile servants of German fascism, who committed grave crimes against the Ukrainian people during the Second World War.
129. No less shameful, no less ludicrous, are the annual sessions of both Houses of Congress, when they glorify the attempt to establish, with the bayonets of foreign interventionists, the odious system of exploitation which the Ukrainian people threw on to t! e rubbish heap of history, once and for all, nearly half a century ago.
130. We mention this, not because such musical-comedy representatives constitute any threat to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Such commotions, worthy of Mark Twain’s satirical pen, do not in the least disturb the Ukrainian people, which, together with the other peoples of the USSR, are building communism. We mention it only in order to show how thoroughly permeated United States foreign policy is with the philosophy of intervention in the domestic affairs of other States and to what extent this has become a commonplace phenomenon for a considerable number of politicians and even for the supreme legislative body of the United States of America.
131. The delegation of the Ukrainian SSR will support all proposals aimed at further strengthening the standards laid down in the United Nations Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of their Independence and Sovereignty.
132. The cause of the peace and security of peoples will gain only if all States Members of this Organization strictly observe the basic principles and provisions of its Charter. In this connexion the Ukrainian delegation declares its full support for the proposal of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic concerning strict observance of the prohibition of the threat or use of force in international relations, and of the right of peoples to self-determination [A/6393].
133. The General Assembly has before it a number of economic and financial problems for its consideration. Of particular importance are the questions of international trade, including trade between East and West and the strengthening of the economies of the developing countries.
134. We believe that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development should play a positive role in this matter. Unfortunately, the recommendations of the 1964 Conference are not in fact being implemented by the Western Powers. It is even being suggested that tire decisions of the first Conference, including the principles it approved in the matter of international trade relations and policies, should be revised.
135. The Ukrainian SSR is in favour of the most rapid practical implementation of the principles laid down by that Conference and of its recommendations. We believe that the forthcoming conference on trade and development should consolidate the achievements of the first Conference and reject any attempt at revision of the principles already approved, We are still in favour of universality for that organization.
136. The Ukrainian delegation likewise considers that the United Nations should take the most radical measures to strengthen the sovereign control of developing countries over their natural resources. It is our conviction that the United Nations would thereby provide those countries with the necessary support in their struggle for the right to be masters of their own national resources; for the economic and social progress of the developing countries depends largely on how effectively they can exercise sovereignty over their natural resources.
137. Our delegation has read with great attention the report of the Ad Hoc Committee of Fourteen on financial matters [A/6343]. We consider its conclusions highly interesting and we hope that the Committee’s useful activity will promote greater co-ordination of activities among the institutions and organs of the United Nations family and greater economy in the use of budgetary resources.
138. The Charter of the United Nations links measures for strengthening world peace with the development of friendly relations among States on the basis of equality of rights and self-determination of peoples. Genuine universality of international organizations, and in the first place of the United Nations, would be a guarantee for the objective solution of international problems. Since the strengthening of peace and the development of friendly relations are obligations incumbent on all States, participation in international organizations should not be denied to a single State which has a policy directed to the achievement of those ends.
139. The admission of the German Democratic Republic to membership in the United Nations would, beyond all question, increase the possibilities for the United Nations to act in the name of the world and would serve the interests both of the German people and of all peace-loving peoples; for the German Democratic Republic occupies an important place in the system of international relations and is an important factor for peace in Europe. It has long been necessary to put an end to the discrimination practised against the People’s Republic of China, to admit its lawful representatives to participation in the activities of the United Nations and to expel from this Organization tire Chiang Kai-shek clique, which represents nobody at all.
140. To improve the effectiveness of the United Nations in strengthening peace means, first of all, putting an end to violations of the Charter of the United Nations, once and for all freeing tire United Nations from every vestige of the cold-war period and creating in the United Nations a climate conducive to the collaboration of all States on an equal footing.
141. One of the left-overs from tire past, from the cold-war period, is the presence of the so-called Korean question on the agenda of the General Assembly. The purpose of that question is somehow to cloak the occupation of South Korea by United States troops in the United Nations flag.
142. The delegation of tire Ukrainian SSR, together with the delegations of Byelorussia, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Mongolia, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union, has submitted for the consideration of this session the question of the withdrawal of all United States and other foreign troops from South Korea and the dissolution of the so-called United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea [A/6394]. We believe that consideration of this question would help to redress the injustice done to the Korean people and to put an end to tire foreign interference, carried on in the name of the United Nations, in the domestic affairs of that people. Such a step would contribute to the strict observance of the United Nations Charter and would help to enhance the role of this Organization as an instrument of peace and international co-operation.
143. In stating from this tribune our views concerning the activities of the United Nations and its place in international affairs, the Ukrainian delegation would like to stress the prominent role played by Secretary-General U Thant and to declare that, if he were to express his willingness to remain in office for a further term, that decision on his part would meet with the support of the Ukrainian SSR.
144. This year the Ukrainian people are starting to implement a new* five-year economic development plan. I shall quote only two figures to show how high we have set our targets: during the five years of the plan the mean annual volume of industrial production will increase by 50 per cent and that of agricultural production by 25 per cent. Our Republic is now producing more pig-iron, steel, rolled iron, iron and manganese ore and natural gas than any other West European country. The completion of the new five-year plan will raise our national economy to an even higher level.
145. Next year our country will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The 1917 Revolution led to the Ukraine’s conversion, in a short interval of historical time, from a backward agrarian country into a leading industrial and agrarian State. The Republic has become a country with great metallurgical, chemical and engineering industries, a country of developed agriculture, advanced science and flourishing culture.
146. Everything we are building and creating, everything on which our workers and collective farmers, our engineers and scientists, all the working people of our country are labouring-all this is being built and created for peace on earth, for the triumph of free labour, in the name of the ideals of democracy, fraternal friendship and co-operation among all peoples of the world, for man and for mankind as a whole.
147. Permit me to assure the General Assembly that the Ukrainian SSR, as in the past, will give its full support to the principles and purposes enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. As in the past it will regard the United Nations as an arena for active political struggle against imperialism and aggression, for the cause of peace and the security of all peoples.