141. Mr. President, it is my turn now to offer you the warm congratulations of my delegation and of my Government. I do so with the greatest pleasure. Knowing your high qualifications and your long and rich experience, we feel reassured that the affairs of the United Nations are in good hands indeed, and that under your wise and inspired guidance the deliberations of this Assembly will yield concrete and effective results. Our good wishes go to you.
142. I should like to pay tribute also to the. outgoing President, Mr. Quaison-Sackey of Ghana. He held the office of President of the General Assembly at a most difficult time, but we all know he discharged his duties to our utmost satisfactions.
143. I should like also to offer our warm congratulations to the new Member States which have been admitted to the United Nations — the Gambia, the Maldive Islands and Singapore.
144. The United Nations has just reached a point which is significant in the life of human beings and international organizations. Twenty years have passed since nations — victors and vanquished alike, with their lands laid waste, their resources exhausted and millions of their youth sacrificed in a-most destructive war — dreamt of a better new world where the dignity and worth of the human person, the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, would be observed and respected. They strove to establish the rule of law, but especially they hoped that, by establishing this Organization, they might "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war". Now that two decades have gone by, what has become of those dreams and hopes? The answers to such a question will probably vary.
145. For those who come from places such as Europe or North America, where life is secure and plentiful and where peace is not immediately threatened, the reply may be optimistic. But for many, like myself, who come from the centre of storms and turmoil, where fighting, on a large or small scale, has become commonplace, where threats to crush one another burst out angrily like the daily cracklings of mortars and machine-guns, and where, in between the tragic happenings of death and destruction, millions of haggard human beings scrape the soil to eke out a meagre subsistence, the answer can only be somewhat less enthusiastic. For us, the objectives set forth by the founders of the United Nations are still distant, if indeed they seem to be within reach at all. For us also, some of the words uttered in this Assembly have a strange ring in our ears, for those words seem to have little, if any, relevance to the facts of everyday life as they actually prevail in our part of the world.
146. In coming here, therefore, I carry with me a simple message from the people and Government of Thailand which is to be transmitted to you, and through you, to the good peoples of your respective countries, in the plain and candid language which the Thai people like to use and which they can readily understand. It is, of course, our hope that other peoples of the world will give to it whatever attention and consideration it may deserve.
147. The people in my country are aware that the United Nations is dedicated to peace — to the preservation and strengthening of peace. They also know that when representatives of various lands come to speak annually in this Assembly or, through the year, in other forums of the Organization, they voice the profound believe of their respective peoples in the necessity of having peace in the world. So far as I know, none of them has spoken against peace.
148. The only exception — and a very significant one — has been a statement made by a leader of the People's Republic of China, excerpts of which we re quoted he re for our edification, in which war is glorified as a great school for tempering peoples and nations. These are, indeed, unusual words and on hearing them even those of us who have been accustomed for some time to such words cannot help feeling shudders running through our bodies. Since then, further irresponsible outbursts and insults have poured out from the same quarters against our Organization, as well as against its dedicated Secretary-General, thus deriding our common endeavour to find a way to achieve world peace and order.
149. Yet, in spite of this ghastly philosophy which runs counter to the aspirations of all mankind, there are some who still want to bring such a nation into our midst. They even insist that the increasing bellicosity shown by those leaders makes all the more urgent their admission into our fold, piously hoping that the climate prevailing in this Organization may cure them of their warlike psychosis. On our part, we are unable to share that wishful thinking since the United Nations, not being a reformatory school or a psychopathic ward, will hardly be in a position to administer such a redressing and healing treatment.
150. With that unfortunate exception, we may say that in this Organization peace is consistently held as the ultimate objective of the world community.
151. Yet such an objective needs to be clarified further. Peace cannot only mean an absence of a major war, a nuclear war, or a war between the great Powers endowed with the most potent means of mass destruction. The millions of people in South and South-East Asia, which has been the scene of strife and conflict, cannot feel completely satisfied with the nuclear Powers being presently at peace with one another. For them, it is not enough that the prospects of a nuclear showdown seem unlikely in the foreseeable future, although they and their Governments wholeheartedly support the efforts of the United Nations and other agencies in the field of disarmament as well as in preventing further dissemination of nuclear arms. This can be seen from the fact that their nations have joined an overwhelming number of other countries of the world in acceding to the nuclear test-ban treaty and are in favour of extending the agreement to cover underground tests. Nevertheless, the general efforts to ensure global peace, while undoubtedly beneficial to them as to the world at large, do not carry with them full significance since in their daily life they have to meet with death and the other ravages of regional and local fighting with which they have had to come to grips almost at every moment of their existence. That is why those simple folk would be even more deeply interested in seeing greater efforts devoted to thinking about and taking measures to ensure the kind of peace that they can feel and that they can enjoy.
152. Unlike Europe and the America, a good part of Asia has become a centre of trouble and turmoil. South Viet-Nam, suffering from the legacy of a long period of past colonial servitude, had to face, after the so-called liberating tentacles which for years have been attempting to choke the life out of its free existence. It has been, in particular, confronted with ah ambitious and expansionist neighbour and brother to the North which is not content with achieving a sovereign status for itself, but seeks to extend its domination further across the border. This expansionist proclivity from the North has been disguised under the cloak of a liberation movement in order to deceive unaware and uniformed world public opinion. Its true nature, however, can easily be discerned as being no less than an attempt by an expansionist Power to impose its physical and ideological rule upon an unwilling neighbour. In this undertaking it has been abetted and supported by another like-minded and much more powerful régime, which likewise aspires to dominate not only the continent of Asia, but the whole under-developed world. Of course, those of us who live in the vicinity of the actual scene of conflict and are directly or indirectly affected by it can easily see through this cloak of liberation and recognize it as nothing but a disguised version of
colonial conquest. Indeed, if any true liberation is to be carried out in Viet-Nam, it is the people of North Viet-Nam, living under an utterly oppressive régime, who ought to be liberated. Thus, the North Viet-Namese régime and indeed its allies are in no way qualified, let alone having any right, to take upon themselves the task of liberating others. It is no wonder, therefore, that the South Viet-Namese people have categorically rejected this so-called liberation attempt by the North, and have put up a long and heroic resistance right up to the present day.
153. Although the situation in the Kingdom of Laos is now quiescent, that country has also been a victim of the same pattern of "liberation". There the aggressive forces from the north, for some years, have been infiltrating, subverting and organizing insurgency activities which they euphemistically call a "liberation movement". In fact, such a group of misled people, known as the Pathet Lao, is no more independent from the control centres in Hanoi and Peking than a province of any of the two countries. They are entirely subservient to directives and control emanating from there and can subsist only with support and supply from those two sources. The troops which have been committed to fight against the legal Government of Laos have been trained, equipped and staffed with cadres from those two nations. In spite of the fact that the Geneva Agreements of 1961-1962 gave it a legal foothold in the coalition Government set up thereafter, this pro-Communist faction was not satisfied with the benefits it had derived from those Agreements and it aims at securing complete control over the entire Kingdom. When its intrigues were foiled, it resorted again to force in order to overthrow the legally constituted Government.
154. In the two above-mentioned countries, South Viet-Nam and Laos, the pretence of liberation has been, to some extent, successful in creating doubts in the minds of far-away people unfamiliar with the situation in our part of the world. However, when those aggressive forces sought to extend their expansionist campaign against my country, Thailand, the mask has had to be dropped. Instead of announcing their programme of liberation, they have had to declare plainly and openly that they intend to carry out guerrilla warfare against Thailand. This naked admission was unavoidable because they happened to know that my country has been independent all through its history and stands in no need of liberation. They have therefore had to fabricate changes and to set up so-called patriotic fronts which, as we all know, are nothing but their own creatures.
155. In all these activities, the trend can be clearly seen through, and that trend is pure expansionism aiming at aggression against and control over free countries and peoples. The camouflage they have thrown over their evil designs is too thin and too transparent to deceive anyone, and only people like the Cambodian leaders, who share in similar aggressive policies, can be deluded into supporting these nefarious enterprises. In this connexion, I should like to say that I will not waste the time of this Assembly by replying to the many statements recently made by the Cambodian representative, as they contain nothing worthy of consideration except the usual propaganda elements to further a noxious policy against peace and stability in South-East Asia.
156. The question as it is actually posed in practice is not whether nations like South Viet-Nam or Laos should or should not be free to choose their form of government and to shape their own societies. Being sovereign States, they are fully entitled to follow the national course which is desired by their people. The difficulty arises when their neighbours to the North seek to thrust upon them a political and social system which is not to their liking as it tends to make them subservient to outside control. They therefore prefer the agony of long and bloody struggle rather than bowing to the dictates of outsiders and losing what they hold dear: their freedom and independence.
157. This Assembly, which is composed of many former dependent territories, is well aware that the process of decolonization has been proceeding satisfactorily thanks to the persistent efforts of the United Nations. What is now taking place in certain parts of South-East Asia does not aim at hastening that process but at reversing it, and placing the nations recently liberated from colonial shackles under an even tighter and more enduring bondage.
158. As this struggle goes on, its full meaning can well be realized. The stake involved therein is not only the life or death of two or three nations in South-East Asia, but even more importantly, the future security and well-being of many countries around the world. The objective of the aggressors in South-East Asia is not merely to deprive a few nations of their free existence; rather they seek to shatter the present precarious world order and replace it with their own imperialistic grand design. If they are allowed to accomplish just that, the world may be plunged into the greatest of cataclysms from which many stand to lose.
159. This is the problem which touches our simple people of South-East Asia even more closely than those of nuclear warfare and nuclear proliferation. Even though it now makes its effects felt mostly in our part of the world, there is no guarantee that other areas, such as Africa and Latin America, are completely immune from its infection. In fact, we already know that these aggressive undertakings are being extended across the oceans and well beyond South-East Asia, to similar aggressive attacks, they may be interested in watching our own experience in warding off the threats and dangers to our freedom and independence. Furthermore, since all these nations share a similar stake in preserving their hard-won sovereign independence, they may also want to join together in exerting at least a moral authority against the insatiable aggressors.
160. After all, what the simple folk in Africa, Asia and Latin America desire is the basic freedom to enjoy the gifts with which nature has endowed their lands, without the oppression of foreign overlords or indigenous proconsuls who would take orders from faraway lands and compel them to live under iron-
fisted régimes which are alien to their traditions and philosophy.
161. Because of this threat to our free existence, nations like mine have no other choice than to redouble their efforts to increase their national strength and, when necessary, to join up with like-minded friendly nations in resisting and combatting encroachments on their national heritage. As far as possible, we prefer to reply on our own resources to safeguard our national patrimony. However, facing the massive forces threatening our existence, our strength alone may be inadequate. That is why, in the case of South Viet-Nam, the people and Government of that country have been compelled to ask for assistance from outside. Had it not been for the timely intervention of nations willing to undertake the heavy responsibility for peace and freedom, the people of South Viet-Nam might already have succumbed to the vicious onslaughts from the north. Intervention in this case has been beneficial to freedom and to peace. Without it, some 15 million free men and women could by now have joined a so-called "liberated" concentration camp, and another aggression would have been consummated. But even if South Viet-Nam had been lost, the threat of aggression would not have ended there. Other aggressions would almost inevitably have followed and the whole of South-East Asia might well be aflame and might eventually lead to another world conflagration. In that respect the situation in South Viet-Nam in the course of this year presents certain similarities to that of Europe in 1935-1936. The difference between what existed then and the situation now may be that the seeds of world-wide conflict have been rendered sterile by the opportune intervention.
162. What has been said above will no doubt have a bearing on the commendable proposal for this Organization to issue a declaration on non-intervention. We certainly will support such a proposal, provided that we reach a clear understanding as to the meaning and scope of application of the proposal. If nonintervention were to apply to all without exception and were not limited to certain quarters; if that notion would not exempt from its application certain activities known as "national liberation movements"; and if ultimately non-intervention were to apply from the start and not at a certain stage of development of any given situation when a previous intervention had already taken place, such as in the case of Viet-Nam, then we would gladly concur with the proposal. For what we seek is not to intervene in other people's affairs, but to prevent outside intrusion into our own.
163. While we were preoccupied with the threats to the security of our neighbours and our own land, we were distressed by the armed conflict which broke out between two-countries with which Thailand entertains close relations. Although we are aware that important differences have existed between them for some time, we had not thought that force would be resorted to. Fortunately, wisdom has now prevailed and the two sides have shown willingness to cooperate with the United Nations in agreeing to the cease-fire call. Much no doubt, remains to be done, and further efforts by the parties as well as the United Nations, including the permanent members of the Security Council, will have to be exerted to resolve this delicate and complex problem. It is to be hoped that all the means now at the disposal of the United Nations and the past endeavours to compose the differences may serve as a basis or as guidance for future attempts to settle this thorny question, as its continuance benefits no one except those who desire to further the policy of their own aggrandizement and who would not hesitate to plunge Asia into greater confusion and chaos.
164. While the over-all picture of Asia has become more sombre as a result of new conflicts that have broken out, a new trend appears to emerge that may be beneficial if it can be further pursued. The major Powers which so far have not been able to act without coming into opposition with one another have for once taken collateral measures directed towards the same objective, namely to bring about the end of hostilities in the sub-continent. This may be an isolated instance of fortuitous understanding. Our hope is that it may become generalized and its application further extended to other areas of disagreement. If that could happen, the world at large would benefit, while strife-torn Asia might find a relief from the effects of world-wide confrontation and concentrate more effectively on the more strictly regional difficulties.
165. Such infrequent occurrence of co-operation is particularly needed in the internal problems of the United Nations. As the challenges to world peace and order increase, it hardly seems to be the moment to weaken the United Nations, which has been and remains the one and only international organization available to deal with various international crises. Although the General Assembly has been able to function again, it is of no avail to close our eyes to the fact that the financial problem is still with us and that such a problem more or less cripples our Organization.
166. It is true that the nineteenth session of the General Assembly decided, in resolution 2006 (XIX), to set up a Special Committee on Peace-keeping Operations with a particular mandate that the Committee would undertake a "comprehensive review of the whole question of peace-keeping operations" and that, in a spirit of compromise and co-operation by the various parties, the Special Committee, on which Thailand was invited to serve, succeeded in reaching a consensus that enabled the twentieth session of the General Assembly to carry on its work normally in accordance with its rules of procedure.
167. It may be too soon to know whether the decision not to involve the General Assembly with the question of the applicability of Article 19 of the Charter would in fact have any adverse effects on the life of the Organization. We, however, sincerely hope that the concession on the part of some Member States will encourage others to offer voluntary contributions so that the financial difficulties of the Organization can be solved.
168. In this connexion, I should like to pay a tribute to those well-meaning Member States which have made worthy contributions to tide over the present difficulty. But the problem will be removed only when those who are in arrears in paying their assessed contributions begin to take steps to reverse their hitherto unco-operative attitude.
169. How we are going to solve this question is, no doubt, an urgent and weighty task from which we can hardly escape. It may be an understatement to say that the future of our Organization hangs in the balance, and that if no way out can be found owing to the lack of spirit of compromise, the United Nations may well founder. The hope of mankind for a future of universal peace and order will be shattered, the smaller nations in particular will have no reliable anchor and may find themselves adrift and at the mercy of larger predatory Powers.
170. It is also of interest to note that during this session of the General Assembly discussions will take place on the mandate of the Special Committee on Peace-keeping Operations, and that there will be decisions on the modalities for the continuance of its work. We believe that if the United Nations were to be true to its Charter, it would indeed have to face up to the problem and define the relationship between the Security Council and the General Assembly on the questions of maintenance of international peace and security. We, of course, recognize that the Security Council has a primary responsibility in this matter, but at the same time we are convinced that the General Assembly has a residual power which, in the absence of a Security Council action, can initiate a United Nations peace-keeping measure for the prevention and removal of threats to peace. This peacekeeping operation should, as far as possible, have the support of the majority of the Members of the United Nations, and should also, in our view, be adequately financed.
171. If I have dwelt at some length on the problems of peace and security and also on the financial problem of the United Nations, it is because, in our opinion, they overshadow all others. It should not in any case be construed as a lack of interest on our part in the discreet but highly constructive work accomplished by the economic agencies and bodies of the United Nations, particularly the Special Fund, the technical assistance programmes and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Thailand supports to the full those beneficial activities and, as a token of its appreciation, has decided again to increase its contributions to the first two agencies. My country will do whatever it can to increase the effectiveness of these activities by extending its wholehearted co-operation. We shall do so with the belief that they will complement our all-out efforts to tackle the problems of development and economic and social advancement. Indeed, for some years already, a quiet revolution has been under way in Thailand. It is not the kind of revolution in which men and women are launched into the streets with empty stomachs and in rags to sack, to burn and to kill, but a revolution to build new schools, new roads and new hospitals, to dam rivers for irrigation and power, and to reclaim new lands for wider cultivation. As our revolution moves on, our people can look back to the path that they have covered, the path that will not be littered with destruction and decay but with achievements as milestones along the road towards progress. We are thankful that in those momentous efforts, we have been assisted by the United Nations and by many well-intentioned friends. Our gratitude goes to each and every one of them.
172. In this connexion, our Government and people are pleased to welcome President Johnson's proposal to assist in the development of South-East Asia and particularly in the implementation of the Mekong River Project. As this is a proposal likely to lay a firm and constructive basis for a long-lasting peace, it is our earnest hope that other industrialized countries will participate in this gigantic and worthwhile task of uplifting the economic and social well-being of the peoples in the South-East Asian region. We are also gratified at the enthusiastic support from various quarters for the creation of an Asian Development Bank. The Thai Government, in view of convenient facilities and the existence of many other United Nations agencies in Bangkok, would welcome its establishment in our capital.
173. In our present world of diversity, contrast and contradictions, frictions and even clashes are bound to occur. While, in general, efforts to smooth them over can be successful, nevertheless, some differences inflamed by highly charged emotions have developed into conflicts with resort to force of arms. These are the possibilities we have to reckon with. However, with the present destructive power of modern weapons, the risk is too great to allow any conflict to take place, for it may develop into world-wide conflagration. For these reasons, it is always preferable to prevent it from happening than to halt it.
174. As in the past, the seeds of present, and possibly of future, conflicts lie in opposing ideas or ideologies and, of course, national interests. If the nations of the world, both within and outside this Organization, could be persuaded to adopt a live and let live attitude of recognizing for others the same freedom they want for themselves to choose the political and economic system or the ideology which they consider to be most suitable for their own development and interests, and not to seek to impose on others the system of their choice, then some of the causes of serious frictions would have
been removed. If such could be the case, peoples would be able to enjoy the benefits of true coexistence, which will be more permanent than a temporary truce.
175. On the other hand, powerful as ideas and ideologies may be, national interests have played and undoubtedly will continue to play, a dominant role in the conduct of international affairs. On occasion, when ideologies come blatantly into direct confrontation, the realization of one's own national interests, especially the interest of preserving global or regional peace, may help put the ideological conflict into proper perspective and thus prevent its effects from upsetting the general peace. It is our hope that this reality may be borne in mind when sustained efforts are being made to resolve the difficulties in Viet-Nam.
176. On the other hand, national interests themselves may not always be concordant. However, with far-sightedness and a spirit of give and take and compromise, they could be adjusted to the mutual satisfaction of all the parties concerned and remain on the path of peace and harmony rather than that of discord and conflict. The United Nations, to us, has been and will remain for a long time to come a useful centre for harmonizing the conflicting ideologies and national interests. If we know how to use it with moderation and due considerateness, this Organization of ours, can faithfully serve our individual and collective interests and, above all, the cause of international goodwill.
177. As a Buddhist whose faith is fundamentally based on peace — peace for all men as well as peace among men and among nations — I prayerfully join in responding to the ardent plea made by His Holiness Pope. Paul VI, whose visit to this Assembly has brought us a profound spiritual inspiration that peace must guide the destinies of men and nations.