31. The past few months have been for the United Nations — and for many of our countries — a trying period. For while disturbances in Asia, particularly the war in Viet-Nam, go on unabated, the brief but devastating armed conflict which broke out in the Middle East last June added a new dangerous dimension to the already acute state of international tension. Confronted with that explosive situation, this fragile Organization of ours stood, as before the Viet-Nam problem, almost spellbound helplessly watching the fast moving episodes of a modern tragedy roll by. Only after the shells and bullets ceased to rain, sowing death and destruction, have efforts for peace begun, mostly in the forms of words — not all of them measured and constructive. At present, as this Assembly passes from an emergency session into a regular one, it has on its hands at least two burning problems, either of which has the potentiality of upsetting the peace of wide regions of the world and the well-being of scores of millions of human beings.
32. While international problems grow in urgency and acuteness, the capacity of the United Nations to deal with them effectively appears to develop in inverse proportion. As a result of this seemingly unfortunate situation, like many other representatives of smaller countries which constitute the great majority of the membership of this Organization and which place their faith and reliance.in the United Nations as an instrument to preserve and maintain peace in this world, we have come to this important meeting with our hearts heavy and full of perplexity about the outcome of our present deliberations.
33. The question uppermost in our minds is whether this Assembly will follow, as previously, the same road which was marked by useless recriminations and invectives, with little, if any evidence of serious search for more constructive solutions and more permanent settlement. If that is the case, then the forthcoming discussions, which will in all probability go on for the next two or three months, will be fruitless and will yield no worth-while result for the future peace of the Middle East and South-East Asia. All of us will then return home empty-handed, our hopes and desires to see long-lasting peace and tranquillity reign in this world frustrated, and the spectre of renewed or more intensified conflict will be looming high and large over the horizon. If, on the contrary, we refuse to be taken in by those who only pay lip service to peace, who try to assume the role of angels of peace but whose wings are strangely blackened by gun smoke and stained with blood, and instead concentrate our efforts on attaining honourable and durable arrangements which will allow many nations to live together without the risk of being dominated or destroyed, then the prospects for world peace and harmony will become infinitely brighter and more promising.
34. Let us, the smaller and weaker nations, candidly face the facts and realize that the imminent dangers which may descend upon our nations are less likely to come from nuclear deployment — although that can never be ruled out — than from combinations of military and political ventures which their proponents euphemistically call "wars of national liberation", and which, to all intents and purposes, are hardly different from the one which Adolf Hitler launched against the Sudetenland nearly thirty years ago. Such undertakings nowadays may be more insidious but they are no less lethal to our free and healthy existence. They are even more so when accompanied by devious and variegated forms of propaganda which seek not only to deceive and dupe the less informed among us but also to incite and inflame pent-up emotions and to exploit old and new prejudices and hatreds. In the process of the carrying out of their designs, various kinds of aid may be resorted to, including the provision of liberal quantities of arms and other material of war which encourage the embittered people to throw themselves into battle and exterminate one another.
35. The foregoing elements may well constitute the root causes of many tragedies now unfolding in our troubled world. We will therefore have to make strenuous efforts and exercise our wiser judgement to protect ourselves against the lurings of false promises and the exhortations of subtle and treacherous propaganda.
36. This explains why Thailand is unwilling to take sides in the unfortunate situation in the Middle East which for long years has known neither peace nor reasonable hope of settlement, but which last June exploded into destructive clashes, leaving behind them a long trail of desolation and misery. Even now, the conflict is far from being resolved, embers are smouldering and new conflagrations may erupt if fuel is added to arouse new outbursts of the still highly charged emotions. The best those smaller nations which have no peace proposals or formulae to offer can do, probably would be to refrain from adding fuel to the fire and also, to the best of their ability, prevent possible exploitation of existing dissensions.
37. Such was the attitude taken by the Thai delegation during the fifth emergency special session of the General Assembly. It was regrettable that practical substantive measures which might help to remove the root causes of the conflict were not then adopted. The principal objective of the Thai Government has always been to see long-lasting peace and stability in the Middle East. My delegation therefore believes that basic issues should be faced realistically and not left untouched.
38. The fact that there has been an outbreak of large-scale war three times in the Middle East in the past twelve years is a clear indication of the explosive situation in the area. Yet previous efforts were mainly directed towards making arrangements for bringing about a cease-fire and a cessation of hostilities without attempting to resolve the fundamental causes which led to such hostilities. Failures of the United Nations so far to face the problem squarely have been, to quote the Secretary-General, "a major contributing factor to the war of last June.11 Is it therefore advisable for us now to try merely to liquidate the consequences of the war and seek at the same time to create necessary conditions which could ensure better prospects for more lasting peace in the Middle East? Withdrawal of troops from occupied areas however immediate and imperative, should, in our view, also be accompanied by additional steps which would remove the basic causes of the armed conflict.
39. In this connexion, my delegation regrets the absence of willingness to negotiate either directly between the parties concerned or through the intermediary of a third party. Likewise, my delegation regrets the refusal of the Government of Israel to heed the call of the overwhelming majority of the General Assembly in regard to the status of the City of Jerusalem. Israel's inflexible attitude on this question may adversely affect the over-all situation and may set another barrier in the path of finding an honourable, just, and definitive solution to the Middle East question.
40. While there is yet no Middle East settlement, the problem of refugees remains a serious concern for us all. My delegation is gratified that, on the initiative of the Swedish delegation, resolution 2252 (ES-V) concerning humanitarian assistance to the Middle East was adopted by the General Assembly at its fifth emergency special session. The Government of Thailand is pleased to be able to make a modest contribution of rice for the relief of the suffering as a result of the recent hostilities in the Middle East.
41. Of no less or perhaps even greater importance is, in our opinion, the question of the war now raging in Viet-Nam, for it has given rise to such a campaign of fallacies and aberrations, about which so many people unfortunately have displayed such a lack of candour, that there has been created an abysmal chasm between realities on the one hand and the falsehoods and half-truths that the perpetrators of the war and their sympathizers have disseminated. North Viet-Nam and its supporters in the Communist world as well as its Viet Cong agents in South Viet- Nam wanted the outside world to believe that the war of conquest they have been waging for many years against the small and independent country of" South Viet-Nam is a genuine national uprising or, to use their current terminology, a “war of national liberation.” This travesty of the truth has convinced neither the South Vietnamese people nor those who live near the scene of the crime and who are directly or otherwise suffering from its nefarious consequences.
42. Only those who are farther away, whose minds are less perceptive of the existing realities, and those who are always liberal with other people's freedom or are prompted by less than altruistic reasons allow themselves to fall victims of this crude propaganda. But if the questions as to what they think of the conflict in Viet-Nam were directed to those Asians who have their feet firmly on the ground and whose vision has not been clouded by the outlandish ideology of the frustrated author of Das Kapital, they would reply in unison that it is in effect an old-styled colonial conquest with only a few renovated outward trimmings. For this so-called sublime liberation with its accompanying paraphernalia is being directed not solely against the Republic of Viet-Nam but actually against a dozen other countries in Asia and Africa. Also, the liberation is always forcible, never voluntary. Consequently, it invariably elicits strong resistance against the forceful invitation to be liberated and to join the paradise of Marxist bondage.
43. The people in our Asian part of the world are at present amazed at the emergence of negative values and logic. They find it particularly difficult to understand the strong advocacies by some quarters that the aggressors should be appeased and even protected against their crime. Their life and property should not be molested by aerial bombing, while their atrocities in the South and elsewhere evoke hardly any indignation. Thus, for these would-be pacifists and lopsided idealists, the lives of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong attackers seem to have much greater value than the throats and limbs of South Viet-Namese and other Asian victims of aggression. That Is why they clamour for unilateral and unconditional cessation of bombing which they contend may bring the aggressive régime of the North to the conference table.
44. It never occurs to them, however, to demand from that régime a positive indication of what it proposes to do in response to such a gesture. In the meantime, they are acting as spokesman and unauthorized agents of Hanoi, while the latter continues to disdain any prospect of meaningful negotiations except on its own terms. In fact, the more the other side shows intransigence and insistence on its unreasonable demands, the more the protagonists of concessions press on with further compromises which ultimately would lead to the surrender and delivery of South Viet-Nam to the North. Indeed, only a few of these advocates have enough courage to admit that South Viet-Nam is not worth saving but should be handed over to its predators of the North for the sake of a temporary peace or even a short-lived truce.
45. To the millions of suffering people in Asia, it seems that the right to call off measures to repel the aggressors, such as the bombing of the North, should be exercised in consultation with them and not by those apostates of peace who barely suffer at the hands of those cruel enemies of freedom and whose campaign for illusory peace has, twice in a lifetime, led to the tragic disaster of world wars. For those millions of Asians whose life is constantly menaced by the aggressors' guns and terror, the halt in the bombing would gain immediate support and approval if it could lead ultimately to the cessation of hostilities as well as that of the harrowing reign of terror. Clearly for them the Viet-Nam war is indeed unpopular , even greatly more unpopular than in Europe or America, which enjoy both safety and abundance. Unlike the Hanoi régime, which is unwilling to leave the war-path, they ardently desire to see the war brought to an end, provided that in so doing their freedom and independence are not sacrificed, for if peace were to be followed by subjection to alien rule and deprivation of their heritage of liberty, their existence would be without meaning. For them it is deeply painful to watch the agonizing debate stirred up by the instigators of doubt, confusion and defeatism, who, masquerading as princes of peace, are in fact undermining and damaging the abiding interests of their own countries as well as those of their friends and allies. With a few more grains of wisdom and perspicacity they should be able to realize that the solution to the war in Viet-Nam can never be found while the defenders of freedom are divided and disunited, but only if the latter succeed in closing their ranks and are determined to carry their gallant task to the end. For the aggressive régime of North Viet-Nam once had the taste of a victory snatched from a divided nation, and nothing can dissuade it from thinking that it can repeat the performance if it manages to sow doubts, dissension and disruption both within and among nations which stand in its way to conquest and domination.
46. In fact, the anatomy of the war in Viet-Nam can he analysed into various elements. In the first place, hostilities may cease altogether when the aggressors, realizing the hopelessness of their adventure, discontinue their infiltration and intervention against their neighbours. They may be persuaded to adopt this course on finding that the cost of aggression, in terms of the deterioration of their well-being and even their subsistence, is far too high, and on realization of the fact that it is not possible for them to achieve their objective through the use of subversion and armed intervention. Indeed, those who are eager to see peace restored in Viet-Nam should join together in convincing the Hanoi régime of the futility of their venture, and persuading them that the peaceful approach is actually more beneficial.
47. Another possibility would appear to be negotiated settlement. Such a solution presupposes some form of negotiations and, above all, a sincere willingness by the parties involved to enter into negotiations. This the parties concerned may do directly on their own, but hitherto the negative attitude of Hanoi has precluded the likelihood of such direct discussion. A further alternative is a larger conference arranged by interested Governments for the settlement of this outstanding problem. In particular, the Geneva Conference on Indo-China may be reconvened to pave the way for a negotiated settlement. The first step in this direction would be for both co-Chairmen of the Geneva Conference to act as true peace-makers by fulfilling their avowed duties as co-Chairmen, and to forsake their role of ideological partners in the conflict. Instead of adding further fuel to the flames by supplying more arms to the aggressors, a co- Chairman would better serve the cause of peace, and at the same time perform his part of the obligations, by using his influence to persuade Hanoi, the only unwilling party in this case, to come to the conference table. At any rate, the least that could be done would be to show support for the reconvening of such a conference.
48. In all these possibilities, even if negotiations could be initiated either directly or by an internationally arranged conference, a further step would still be to secure a just and durable settlement of the conflict. To achieve this objective either in the process of negotiation or otherwise, one of the prerequisites to be borne in mind by the free nations is for them to remain constantly united and to show their firm determination. Failure to muster such unity or to show firmness may result in a superficial settlement entailing a transitory' peace which is fraught with no less grave danger to peace and security.
49. The vicious campaigns now being conducted to breed dissension and disunity among us are not completely devoid of usefulness. They have opened our eyes to the vagaries of both international and domestic politics in various countries and have spurred us to redouble our regional and individual efforts to strengthen our security and defence and to rely more and more on the combined endeavours of those who share in the same stake and have no doubt as to where their vital interests lie.
50. That explains why nations in South-East Asia and in the vast region of Asia and the Pacific have found it necessary to join together in co-operative efforts to bring about greater well-being and progress for their respective peoples. This is our own concept of a revolution in South-East Asia — a revolution which seeks to fill stomachs with food and hearts with realizable hopes for the future, and not one which throws starving people into the streets to commit depredations and desecrations. It is also a revolution to destroy the shackles of past domination and dependency. From now on, the nations in the areas will be inspired by the spirit of equal partnership and co-operation for the good of each and all. Such efforts would move forward more swiftly were it not for the disruptive Viet-Nam war, which has retarded the development of fuller independence and mutual self-reliance of the nations in the Asian region. That is why all of them without exception earnestly hope that this senseless conflict can be brought to a just and successful conclusion which will open up a new era of greater stability and progress. If South Viet-Nam is assured of its freedom, smaller nations of the world can look forward to a more secure independence, free from interference and encroachment. What smaller nations of the Organization, and indeed the whole world, should look forward to is not so much the one-sided cessation of bombing, which will allow the aggressor to wreak further havoc, but rather the ways and means to ensure that there will be no other Viet-Nams in the future.
51. Turning to the present economic situation of the world, I may safely say that in recent decades economists and statesmen have grown more convinced than ever that one of the most serious dangers to the future well-being and security of mankind is the slow and steady drift of 75 per cent of humanity into deeper poverty. Unless certain concrete and positive actions can be taken promptly and effectively to arrest that decline, so that the peoples of developing lands of Asia, Africa and Latin America can proceed with the implementation of their industrialization programmes and accelerate their progress towards self-sufficiency and prosperity, no number of treaties, declarations and resolutions will be sufficient to ward off the eventual breakdown of world order.
52. Many of the representatives preceding me have emphatically drawn the attention of this Assembly to the increasingly widening gap between the rich and the poor. This is no new phenomenon. Such a discouraging trend has existed for some time. And despite past exhortations and pleadings by developing countries and apparent sympathy and gestures of support from industrially advanced countries, the fact is that for the sixth successive year there has been little or no improvement in the over-all level of development assistance provided by the high income countries. While the needy are grateful for the increased generosity of some of these nations, their capacity to help is relatively limited. The main burden, as we know, falls on the few principal aid- supplying nations, whose assistance level, regrettably, has shown only small increases in recent years.
53. Many Governments of developing nations, including that of Thailand, have learned to rely to a large extent on their own efforts, and by means of sound planning and energetic execution of financial and economic policies have managed to move their countries forward at a fairly satisfactory pace, For the past ten years, Thailand's rate of economic growth has averaged 7 per cent a year. That is no mean achievement and has given a sense of pride to the Government and people of the country. However, the task is only partially done, and our efforts — which provide a major share for our own development — continue to be affected by a shortage of external finance on appropriate terms.
54. As a primary commodity-producing country, Thailand, together with many other countries of similar structure, is deeply concerned with the fluctuations of world prices of primary products. The matter has unfortunately been aggravated further by the periodic releases of stockpiles which do much damage to our total efforts and have the effect of slowing down our progress towards a better life for our own people. The recent signing of the Final Act of tariff negotiations within the Kennedy Round has provided us with some hope. Although the Kennedy Round negotiations have resulted in a significant lowering of tariff barriers surpassing the reductions made in previous rounds of tariff negotiations, my delegation finds that many products on which the developing countries had focussed their particular interest received on average considerably smaller tariff reductions than did other products. In other words, the product categories for which industrialized countries are the main suppliers received much more extensive reductions. It therefore remains my firm belief that much needs to be accomplished before the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development is able to achieve practical results and find adequate solutions. For that reason, the second session of UNCTAD to be held in New Delhi in 1968 should really serve as an effective Instrument for a serious quest for solution of the crises — social and economic — which are besetting our world.
55. In this connexion, my delegation fully supports the appeals of the Secretary-General of UNCTAD about the pressing need for- agreement on adopting a global strategy for development and the corresponding synchronized practical measures and actions. We also endorse in principle the proposal made at the fifth session of the Trade and Development Board of UNCTAD by both the Secretary-General of UNCTAD and the Director General of GATT for a Joint International Trade Centre to help the developing countries in their export promotion efforts. It is our hope that the proposal will be translated into action as early as practicable.
56. There are still other problems of deep International concern such as disarmament, peace-keeping operations, decolonization and apartheid. In certain fields progress has been made, such as the submission of identical draft proposals of a treaty for the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. But all these and other problems are currently being overshadowed by the reality of the danger and by the explosive character of the Middle East and Viet-Nam problems. Concerning these grave questions the most urgent requirement seems to be to fill the candour chasm and to set aside political and ideological partisanship. If indeed these issues can be dealt with genuine candour and treated with human tolerance and comprehension, rather than being problems between East and West, between the Marxist and non-Marxist worlds, the chances of reaching accommodation and agreement will notably increase. So far, such a result is not within reach. But if further efforts are pursued with persistence and determination something may be gained which will open up new vistas in the arduous search for a durable and worth-while solution to the present difficulties. If that can be achieved, either within this Organization or outside it, a real service will be rendered to anguished mankind which is yearning for peace and tranquillity, undisturbed by the shadow of terror and the sudden explosion of death. Let us hope that within the relatively short time we spend at this session, tangible results may be achieved to fulfil the deep desire of millions of human beings.