Had the United Nations not been faced in its five years of existence with countless obstacles, had it not been called upon to deal with so many alarming symptoms in the historical development of a convalescent world, it would be difficult to justify its creation, to welcome its birth and to hang on it, as men hoist a banner to a masthead, the hopes of peace and security of a profoundly disturbed epoch. The fact is that the struggle which this young yet already sorely tried Organization has waged, and is still waging, is the best proof of the timeliness of its conception and creation, and of the urgent and imperious need for the work it is doing today.
2. Certainly this has not been merely another episode in the political history of the peoples. The recent wars, with their unparalleled violence and enormous destructive power, engendered in the peoples a boundless desire for peace, concord and agreement. That is why the United Nations (united for agreement, concord and peace) neither can nor should be regarded as one of those familiar panaceas created for interested motives in international political laboratories with the object of providing temporary compromise solutions for more or less selfish problems; it must be recognized for what it is, a sacred idea conceived by the peoples at a time of grave and legitimate struggle for the permanent protection of their democratic existence, autonomy, dignity, peace and security.
3. For these reasons it is a crime to obstruct it in its sacred mission. It is a crime to try to reduce it to a tool of selfish ideologies. It is a crime to use it as an instrument of war in times of peace. It is a crime not to render it due honour.
4. “We the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…” Thus reads the opening sentence of the Preamble of the United Nations Charter. Yet, today one of these nations, “determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” is violated and invaded by violent and brutal forces bent on extermination — the extermination of a people and of a nationality. I need hardly say that I am referring to the democratic Republic of South Korea.
5. In the degrading scale of interventions, unjust and injurious interventions by armed force marks the nadir below the zero of international politics. I belong to a country whose deepest and most prolonged historical afflictions have been painfully rooted in the most varied types of intervention. The Dominican Republic, with its experience of the martyrdom of intervention, is in a position to appreciate to the full the tragedy which the people of South Korea is suffering.
6. But what democratic people, even if it has itself never been the victim of treacherous aggression, can fail to have repudiated and condemn such an unprecedented and criminal outrage? The United Nations, composed of peoples which wish to be peoples, of men who strive to be men in the highest sense of the word, has taken on behalf of its Members the stand dictated in all of us by the deep-rooted instinct of self-preservation and the supreme and universally felt desire not to let foul aggression go unpunished.
7. By its energetic, resolute, unequivocal and united action, the United Nations has saved the faith of mankind in the principles of peace, and has taught the aggressors an eloquent lesson.
8. The blood now being shed by the American soldiers is redeeming the ideal of the United Nations — the ideal of peaceful possession and enjoyment of security. For the first time in history the community of nations has taken the decisive step of waging a victorious war on war. Never has such a tribute been rendered to peace, for never before has the conscience of mankind been so united in the face of brutal aggression. Let this object- lesson serve as a formal warning to aggressors everywhere, whether they be violators of the national rights of others or merely ideological aggressors; for any moral aggressor is potentially a military aggressor.
9. The Dominican Republic takes this opportunity to reaffirm its intention to offer its full co-operation and, as far as its resources permit, to assume its full share of the sacrifices necessary for the complete triumph of this just United Nations undertaking. This is not the first time — let us hope it may be the last — that my country, though not one of the greatest or most powerful, has calmly and bravely faced an unequal fight for the right, resolute and conscientious in the performance of its duty.
10. Before leaving this rostrum I should like to refer to a different matter connected with the United Nations. The question of the relations between Member States of the United Nations and Spain was placed on the agenda of the fifth session of the General Assembly at the initiative of the Dominican Republic [A/1310].
11. Apart from the reasons imposed by the logic of history and the irresistible force of tradition; apart from the historic heritage which has implanted in the soul of peoples a strong feeling of filial respect mingled with manly and honourable gratitude; apart from the fact that the Dominican Republic, as the first-born, wished by its action to express a desire rooted deep down in the national instinct of some twenty sister countries; apart from all this, the Dominican Republic was guided by two more immediate and realistic considerations, more timely and practical, when it asked the General Assembly first to consider and later to approve the resumption of normal and traditional relations between Member States of the United Nations and Spain.
12. These two considerations are, first, the sincere desire to point out — so that it may be taken into consideration — that there has been a change in world public opinion in favour of such relations since resolution 39 (I) was adopted on 12 December 1946; and, secondly, the fervent wish to contribute to this world Organization a new and constructive element of unity and agreement, an element which is the more necessary and desirable at a time v/hen gales, blowing from a quarter we all know, are threatening to strip the petals off this white rose of peace which is called the United Nations Charter.
13. The Dominican Republic trusts that it is not alone in hoping for the adoption of this constructive and just proposal which, just and constructive as it is, it has submitted as a tribute to United Nations unity.