68. On behalf of the Government and people of Chile I wish to congratulate the President of this Assembly most warmly on his election. For many years we have admired his outstanding ability, his abundant talent and his devotion to the service of political ideals which we share and towards the realization of which he has opened up valuable paths. We appreciate his devotion to unity and peace.
69. A few days ago, during the visit of Mr. Guiseppe Saragat, the President of the Italian Republic, we had the honour of welcoming Mr. Fanfani in Chile, where he received the sincere and spontaneous homage of our people. His experience and his distinguished personality are a guarantee that our debates will be guided with efficiency and serenity.
70. I also welcome the new Members of our Organization, Singapore, the Gambia and the Maldive Islands, and wish them prosperity in their new life as independent nations.
71. Participation in this international debate gives us an opportunity to proclaim our principles, to define our policy and to offer our co-operation. We speak for a democratic nation and for the Government of the Chilean people, who twice in the past year have expressed their determination to make a significant alteration in their living conditions and have blazed the revolutionary trail of change in freedom.
72. I address myself to the representatives of most of the world’s peoples, in the certainty that only here, in the United Nations, can world peace, the ultimate objective of my country's foreign policy, be strengthened. That is why all peoples look to this Organization with hope.
73. Man has achieved dominion over nature through the power of science, but it is not by science and power alone that he will advance towards fulfilment, for, as Dr. Albert Schweitzer said, man must attain that high degree of intelligence that will enable him to use his power over natural forces not for destruction, but only for construction.
74. The price of peace is justice, for there will be no peace in the world as long as poverty and wealth live side by side, as long as some countries possess nothing and others possess everything. If, as we hope, one day all the peoples of the world decide to live in peace, they will be able to do so only by willingly sharing common tasks and objectives inspired by the principles that govern the United Nations. We are convinced that peace, justice and freedom form an indissoluble whole. Peace will never be able to exist in this world without justice, nor will peace and justice without freedom.
75. In conformity with these principles, Chile declares its profound dedication to everything that means respect for and strengthening of human rights, because our generation, which has left behind the era of feudalism and racism, must overcome nationalism and aim resolutely at a world government under the rule of law, serving all men without distinction or exclusion. Chile declares its profound devotion to the principle of the self-determination of peoples. Chile declares its sincere repudiation of selfish nationalism, which prevents men from undertaking a common task. Finally, Chile declares that fee liberation of mankind from poverty, oppression and insecurity can be achieved only by means of the effective solidarity of all peoples.
76. We are sure that these principles are shared by all peoples, yet today we face a terrifying reality. Mankind witnesses repeated aggressive confrontations and sees with stupefaction that irresponsible leaders reject even coexistence, exposing their peoples to extermination as though they had the right to dispose of human life. For us, coexistence is not a concession but the recognition of the simple need to survive.
77. In speaking of peace, I cannot fail to refer to other dangers that threaten peace in the world today. At the sight of man killing man, and of resources being destroyed in Viet-Nam, I must recall and support the position of the United States, the United Kingdom, the non-aligned countries and the Secretary- General of the United. Nations which can be expressed
in the words used by President Johnson when he said "We have said that we are prepared to negotiate anywhere and at any time", adding, "the people of South Viet-Nam must have the right to determine their own future in free elections in the South or throughout the whole of Viet-Nam". We are glad that this decision was so decisively reiterated by Mr. Goldberg a few days ago in this Assembly [1334th meeting]. This appeal should be heard and accepted.
78. Thanks to the efforts of the Secretary-General and the co-operation of many nations, it has been possible to bring the conflict between India and Pakistan under control and to prevent it from constituting a new threat to peace.
79. The United Nations also made a positive contribution to the cause of peace in the sad conflict in which the people of the Dominican Republic were involved in their struggle for freedom, a struggle which has fortunately found a political solution that will enable this brother nation to choose its own government. That was the solution advocated by Chile from the very beginning.
80. In speaking of peace, we cannot fail to mention expenditure on armaments. It is hard to depict madness, but it must be repeated in this Assembly that $120,000 million is wasted yearly on armaments production. A sum equivalent to the annual income of all the under-developed countries is spent on the production of instruments of destruction. When fifty million men dedicate their intelligence and abilities to activities related to defence, we can say with certainty that man is defenceless against hate and fear and that our era, which could have been the most promising, is the most perilous in human history.
81. We condemn particularly the threat to peace and to mankind caused by the production of atomic bombs and the possibility of trading in them. That is why we have advocated the denuclearization of Latin America; that is why we hope that not one additional atomic bomb will be produced and that no country which today is innocent of possessing nuclear weapons will come to possess them. Such instruments should not be bought of sold. In short, the possession, production, sale and use of nuclear weapons should be totally prohibited.
82. We heartily welcome the desire to limit the nuclear arms race expressed in this Assembly by the two great world Powers. We hope that their proposals will form the basis for a speedy agreement at this session. We hope that an effective disarmament process will be initiated, under United Nations control, and that we may thus attain the principal objective for which all peoples yearn. If all these resources were no longer used for military purposes but were devoted to building a world without poverty, this generation would have fulfilled its historical duty, because in advancing towards disarmament it would have progressed towards development; by attaining peace, it would achieve justice.
83. How intense this concern must be, how great the dangers if, for the first time in history, a man who is the very personification of peace and love for all mankind, His Holiness the Pope, is, with his presence, to lend a new dimension to this rostrum and provide the most valuable recognition of this Organization's peace-keeping mission!
84. He will come to an Assembly in which the equality of all members is a myth, not a fact, owing to the wide and ever-increasing differences in levels of living. Every year, more goods are available for those who have most, while for those who have little or nothing the possibility of acquiring goods decreases. We do not believe that a world of inequality can survive, for it would be a world without peace. That is why we stress the problem of under-development, for progress in the field of political independence has not been followed by economic and above all by social progress.
85. Today colonialism has become largely a thing of the past, but new and more subtle forms of neocolonialism persist. The under-developed economies still depend on international markets dominated by the industrialized countries; consequently, the nations of. Latin America, Africa and Asia have been losing ground in world trade. While the value of their exports, declines, the price of their imports is rising rapidly. In this situation, the developed countries, both those with market economies and those with centrally-planned economies, as consumers of raw materials and producers of manufactured goods, have enjoyed the best of both worlds, whereas the under-developed countries have had the worst of both worlds. We call this economic imperialism, and we could also call it exploitation.
86. It was here, in the United Nations, that this situation was revealed. The regional economic commissions, in their studies, showed what was happening in world trade. The turbulent United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which was worldwide in scope, gave the poor countries an opportunity to demonstrate the reality in which they live.
87. Today economic conditions are responsible for a new division of the world. Within this framework there has arisen in the United Nations a group of countries which, bound together by their common problems, jointly seek a way out of their condition as underdeveloped countries, handicapped by the present terms of world trade. The third world, the countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia, aligned by their common deprivation, have united to persuade the wealthy countries that true progress is common progress, that nothing can grow unless growth is common to all and that, as has been said, it is unfair and unnatural for one branch alone to absorb all the sap of the tree, growing on the death of all the other branches. Faced with the vehement expression of views by the under-developed countries, the Western countries cannot forget their responsibilities.
88. It was in the small society of freemen in Greece that Western civilization began. There an anti-individualist society created, with a collective soul and common values, the possibility of the development of individual genius. Through the total freedom of a human group, intelligence definitively overcame instinct.
89. It is for us, with two thousand years of additional historical experience, to make the world a place for the collective soul and for creative effort.
90. It was the Christian West that taught the world that solidarity is a way of life, that man is the ultimate purpose of all social, political and economic effort, that culture is man's creation and his right and that every man is responsible for all men. It is these basic values that have inspired Western civilization, but they have often been forgotten and colonialism and the exploitation of the coloured man by the white man have become facts of history.
91. Can the West forget the duty inherent in its moral concepts and the responsibilities deriving from its past behaviour? We hope it will not forget. We believe that a conscientious desire for co-operation with the developing countries has begun to emerge. The West now understands the tensions it helped to create, and is listening with growing interest and justified concern to the protests it has taught the developing countries to formulate.
92. Latin America is Western. With its 200 million inhabitants — they will be 500 million by the end of the century — who love freedom which, though sometimes suppressed, has always triumphed, it constitutes a force for renewal which can and must be a decisive contribution to the great task of achieving progress and peace in the world. For that reason Chile has strengthened its bonds with Europe.
93. Europe is today giving increasing demonstrations of solidarity with Latin America. We consider that this relationship enriches, articulates and complements Latin America's relations with the United States, for Europe brings its own creative genius, expressed in so many political, social and cultural values which we have in common. When we look at Europe and the United States, we do not forget that we belong to the world of the developing countries. The peoples who seek justice and peace may be sure that in Chile they will find a faithful and resolute exponent of the problems which affect Us equally.
94. The Government of the Chilean people, seeking fruitful contacts with all the nations of the world, has begun a direct approach to countries of Africa and Asia. It has also renewed its relations with the countries of the socialist world, whose accelerated progress may come to represent a factor of great importance for our development. We are convinced that ideological differences need not be obstacles to coexistence, enduring relations and co-operation with all countries which accept peaceful coexistence, respect the right of peoples to self-determination and abide by the principle of non-intervention.
95. For years it has been said that Latin America, would be an explosive continent. We believe that the revolution has already begun; as its problems affect a vast area of the world, we speak of them in this Assembly and they should be of concern to this Organization. The struggles to destroy the established order in Latin America are well known. The revolutionary process under way threatens an institutional establishment which has neither adjusted itself to the requirements of social development nor demonstrated economic efficiency.
96. There is undoubtedly agitation from outside, stirring up and organizing revolt, but the profound cause lies elsewhere and must be sought in the signs which we see today in Latin America. It is to be found in the political will of the peoples to be masters of their own destiny, to possess culture, to excercise their rights and to enjoy the benefits of civilization. It is to be found in recognition of the fact that the survival of political freedom is incompatible with the persistence of poverty.
97. Latin America has inherited from the West the spirit of rebellion, of rebellion which occurs when there is theoretical equality but great inequalities in practice, when the law ceases to be the instrument of justice and becomes the instrument of privilege, bringing about its own destruction. It is obvious that this rebellion is not only a desire for justice and progress. To a greater or lesser extent ideological factors, alien to our culture, intrude, tending to turn our region into a battlefield and endeavouring to pervert the just expression of our people's desire for change and to launch them into destructive violence.
98. Is this a sufficient reason to arrest the movement of the peoples who are struggling to advance towards freedom and to obtain political, social and economic rights which they see flourishing in other communities but which are denied to them? It is essential to understand and to discern this phenomenon if the advance of justice is not to be halted and if the abuse of privileges under cover of ideological pretexts is to be prevented.
99. The people of Latin America are wise and intelligent and have their own vision of their problems; when faced with real alternatives they know how to choose what suits them best if they are allowed to select freely. They know that guerrilla warfare and illegal violence do not lead to the establishment of justice, and to the extent that they acquire culture and opportunities they understand that only by their voluntary efforts can their poverty be overcome.
100. It is by having faith in the people, by guiding and organizing their advance towards the conquest of their own rights and the exercise of their responsibilities that we shall be able to face the facts of the present-day world. We consider that, for this historic process to be carried out to the best advantage, all Latin American nations must be united in their determination to achieve integration, which will make it possible to bring about an accelerated, and therefore peaceful, development. It is encouraging to note here the complete agreement on this subject already shown in the statements of the Foreign Minister of Brazil [1334th meeting], Uruguay [1335th meeting] and Argentina [1337th meeting]. By this means Latin America must strengthen its cultural identity and work towards a unity which, while respecting the autonomy of the individual communities, will enable it to take its place in the hemisphere and the world with its own personality and objectives.
101. Chile considers that, in order to carry out structural reforms and achieve integration, a close association with the United States on terms of dignity, respect, confidence and mutual understanding is essential. This association is not based only on geography, which obviously is a determining factor in political and economic realities; it has been nourished by a continuous process of juridical development that has given form to a regional system, the oldest and largest in the world. Furthermore, there is an essential solidarity between Latin America and the United States founded on a common acceptance of the principles of freedom, democracy and respect for human rights.
102. But this solidarity, which already has political expression, must be supplemented by its full realization in the social and economic fields. This we think, was the essential spirit of the Alliance for Progress. This spirit must be imbued with new life so that it may respond to the requirements of the present time, and the instruments of the Alliance must be perfected so that they may be equal to the difficult role which the peoples expect of it.
103. We consider that only a positive, united, urgent and bold effort can give our peoples progress in freedom. For all these reasons we do not favour the creation of supranational military forces. They would undoubtedly create dangers for the independence and self-determination of our peoples and might generate mistrust among the nations of the continent, encourage an arms race, arouse appetites and, in the last analysis, threaten to destroy the process of unification. There has already been one Holy Alliance, which tried to hold back the course of justice in an attempt to preserve a dying order. We are convinced that any other Holy Alliance would be equally ill-fated.
104. There are various other reasons why my Government cannot accept regional military forces. Among them, I wish to stress one in particular, namely that peace is indivisible and that when peace is endangered in one nation of the world it is threatened throughout the world. Peace is the concern of all nations, and in the international community it is the concern of the United Nations, the only world-wide organization in a world of division.
1Q5. The United Nations has its legal and institutional machinery for strengthening peace in the world. Let us perfect this machinery, let us give it the moral force which our firm support would provide, let us create whatever instruments it lacks; but let us not parcel out a task which belongs to all men and not only to those who live in a certain region or subscribe to a certain common ideology.
106. The Organization of American States is an organization with the United Nations and, as such, is not called upon to establish military forces. It must accept among its members all the countries of the region, whatever their governmental, economic or social systems may be, provided always they respect the basic principles of non-intervention and the protection and support of human rights.
107. Non-intervention is a fundamental duty of all peoples. It is a bulwark of the inter-American system. This principle, whose violation has always been denounced by Chile, is an obligation on all States, large and small, for it is a basic moral law of the international order. In the Americas, moreover, it is determined by treaty and must be respected. To concede to any State the right to intervene in the life of another, on any pretext whatsoever, or to claim that right for ourselves, would lead us into an untenable position.
108. We consider that in the political field the essential factor of hemispheric unity lies in the effective practice of and vigilant concern for human political, social and economic rights. The most important of these rights is that whereby a people can choose its own government and maintain it against any designs that run counter to its free and democratic expression.
109. I should like to quote from one who has helped to inspire our conception of the world, Jacques Maritain, and say: "It is to new problems and new changes to come that the creative energy of history has shifted.... And it is the job of human free will to prepare and bring about these events in the right direction and under an inspiration really worthy of man. "
110. Chile has shouldered this task and begun its revolution in freedom. We have laid down an uncompromising programme of government that consists in incorporating the people into the exercise of political power and into our culture, so that the development of our economy may have e. social objective and the fruits of our collective effort may benefit the great majority. This is the mandate which the Chilean people has on two occasions given to its new Government.
111. We are a peace-loving people and we need peace in order to carry forward the great efforts which we are making in our domestic affairs to transform the basic structure of our political, economic and social institutions so that our people may enjoy justice in freedom. In this effort we are counting above all on the self-sacrifice and support willingly given by the majority of the Chilean people.
112. Our revolution cannot cause anyone disquiet; it represents a danger to no one save those who would try to halt our progress because they seek to defend indefensible privileges, or those who would seek to install in our country any régime or system that would threaten our freedom.
113. There are many who are looking for failure on our part because they fear freedom. This fear of freedom implies a fear of reform and a fear of the people too. Short-term solutions that sacrifice freedom are solutions with no future. Appearances in a rotten order are paid for very dearly. Only a new order based on justice and efficiency will defend and strengthen democracy. Because of this, they seek, from within or from without, to misrepresent us by accusing our revolution of being either a hew disguise for reaction and imperialism or else an instrument of totalitarianism, both of which are incompatible with our ideology avid our democratic tradition, which has never been interrupted in the 155 years of our independence.
114. As is natural, we want to be successful in our struggle, not only in order to make our people happy but also in order to demonstrate to other peoples with problems like our own that it is possible to organize the will for change and to carry out, in freedom, a revolution in which the fundamental values of Christian civilization, namely the dignity and essential rights of the human person are preserved.
115. We consider it necessary that there should be a substantial increase in our efforts at home towards development; that will require changes in the very foundations of the existing legal and economic order, so that the entire community may participate in it and enjoy its fruits, for there is no economic development without social development. These efforts, however, will not yield their maximum results without adequate and timely financial and technical cooperation from outside.
116. It is possible that, under a dictorial régime, internal efforts alone might suffice, without external aid. But we are interested not only in economic development but basically in its political and social results. The price we may pay for development will not be the sacrifice of human rights and the abandonment of democracy.
117. New formulas are necessary in international co-operation, formulas that will offer a genuine possibility of halting the gradual deterioration in the balance-of-payments position of the under-developed countries and that will not entail the tragic necessity of getting into debt in order to pay off past debts.
118. In order to proceed with our domestic effort, we have initiated an accelerated programme of agrarian reform; we have changed the traditional tax system, in which privileges abounded, so that those who possess the most shall be these who contribute the most to the common effort. We have initiated constitutional reform so that every Chilean, without limitation, can elect his representatives and delegate authority, so that the people may be consulted directly when political conditions so require, and so that the right to own property may function as it should in a society in which that right has been enjoyed by only a few. We have started a mass educational campaign for the whole Chilean people, the results of which, as UNESCO has pointed out, are already an example even for the most advanced countries in the world. We are providing decent housing for all Chileans.
119. In what we have been doing in these ten months of government, in the profound changes we have been making, the creation of conditions for converting Chile into a humane and just society, modern in its achievements, free and peaceful in its customs, Chile has received invaluable co-operation from other countries. In that noble spirit of co-operation which inspired the Alliance for Progress, we have been understood and are being given unfailing help in carrying out the reforms which four years ago the Latin American countries undertook to introduce. We have acted with determination, because the diagnosis and forecasts had already been made.
120. The stage through which Latin America is passing today is not one of marking time; it is a time for bringing about the necessary changes in all rapidity. We are convinced that in order to do this it is necessary to hasten the union of the peoples of the continent in an alliance against the old order, an alliance to promote and establish social change. To this end, we must bring the Alliance for Progress up to date and give it new life, and ensure that henceforth development and economic progress will be the real concern of inter-American multilateral policy, so that democracy can be established on a firm basis. We wish to see a creative process established through which effective work will be done for the well-being of the American man, who is weary of so much wretchedness.
121. In outlining the international policy of the Chilean Government before this Assembly, all I wanted to do was to reflect our conviction that, as Teilhard de Chardin said, "The outcome of the world, the gates of the future, the entry into the superhuman — these are not thrown open to a few of the privileged nor to one chosen people to the exclusion of all others. They will open to an advance of all together, in a direction in which all together can join and find completion in a spiritual renovation of the earth".