It is not the democratic world which by military action, revolution fomented from abroad or coups d'état has imposed individualistic or capitalistic régimes on countries which had voluntarily accepted a socialist or collectivist régime. The opposite is true.
75. The democratic world has been compelled to begin rearming in face of uninterrupted communist expansion, the latest manifestation of which is the Korean war. The United Nations, in instituting common action against aggression, has gained renewed vigour. In seeking the consolidation of a system of collective security it is not threatening anyone, but is endeavouring to safeguard its own free existence.
76. Yet we should note that the collective security system ought preferably to be based on regional agreements, particularly from the point of view of the individual contribution of each country; that is, that the countries grouped in the same regional organization should negotiate their contribution and its employment on a regional basis.
77. But notwithstanding the progress implied in the joint repudiation of aggression and the organization of collective security-organization that my delegation and my Government believe should certainly be maintained and strengthened even more — we cannot lose sight of the increasing seriousness of the international situation: violent opposition between the communist Powers and the Western Powers; prolonged cold war, the seed of new dangers; the subversive and destructive activities of the communist fifth columns; the employment in military expenditure, inevitable under present circumstances, of a large part of the States’ economic resources which might otherwise be used for the purposes of civilization; poverty, discontent and anxiety affecting the majority of the world’s population; the justified desire for independence of peoples of age-old history, who are nevertheless in one way or another subjected to a foreign domination that eventually will come to an end in obedience to the inexorable laws of history; inevitable nationalist trends in groups of nations linked by geography, race, language and history; the need for a new, just and equitable balance in the economic relations of the industrialized and non-industrialized countries, between the international prices for raw materials and the international prices for manufactured goods.
78. My delegation believes that the basic social and economic problems should be attacked by methods and systems of international co-operation. President Truman’s Point Four programme and the effective action for rehabilitation, on a small scale though it is, of United Nations technical assistance and of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund are an earnest of what could be done through international co-operation on a broad scale.
79. My delegation is convinced that the democratic world has neither sought nor provoked the present situation of danger and international tension in the face of communism. But at the same time it believes that if the United Nations wishes to obtain the real and unreserved cooperation of all its Members and desires to achieve real universality, it must place increased emphasis on social activities and seek social justice even more vigorously, in order to achieve the well-being which the majority of mankind does not yet enjoy.
80. My delegation also believes that the United Nations should not oppose either directly or indirectly the historic movements for the independence of the peoples now taking place; and that it should also recognize the vitality and justice of nationalist and regional trends of opinion, which are concrete facts in our present political life.
81. We recognize the reasonable basis upon which the great democratic Powers are seeking a genuine and balanced disarmament in which all who act in good faith shall receive safeguards, and we believe that on this basis formulae can be sought which would be acceptable to all those States that have an over-riding interest in it. But we believe that the growth of the danger threatening peace necessitates fresh and redoubled efforts to defend it. It has already been pointed out that war would damage all States, large and small alike, perhaps the latter even more than the former.
82. All of us therefore have a particular interest in avoiding war, even though the basic responsibility may fall, as it does in fact fall, on the great Powers.
83. The United Nations Charter was signed on the assumption that the peaceful coexistence of opposed social and political systems was possible. Let us not lose faith in that assumption. It is our hope not only that the strengthening of the West will be continued but that that strengthening may be a fresh guarantee of peaceful coexistence. Nevertheless, the worsening of the danger of war lends greater emphasis, in our opinion, to the timely suggestion made by the President of the French Republic.
84. This great country has not only offered us cordial hospitality but a constructive idea which may be the most fertile of those so far expressed at this session of the Assembly: the need for direct personal contact between the heads of the great States with world-wide interests in a supreme effort to ease the tension that separates them and to avert the deadly danger that threatens the whole of mankind. If the moral sense of the world is crystallized in this way during this Assembly, we believe that this step will be facilitated in the near future and that we shall thus have made a considerable advance towards peace.