POLITICAL
In October, 1961, Russia's Premier Kruschev was host to the twenty second Communist Party Congress. Chou En-lai of China was among the group of officials and dignitaries from numerous countries. In November of the same year, U.S. President Kennedy proclaimed support for an American "Alliance for Progress," during a South American tour.
In 1975, at Helsinki, thirty three heads of government attended the opening of one of the largest summits in European history. It resulted in a document, signed by all thirty three, plus the United States and Russia, which came to be known as the Helsinki Agreement. Pursuant to its terms, the use of force was soundly rejected as improper and unacceptable.
By the 1980s, a new manace had gained prominence in our world: tewrrorism. Although usually emanating from factional origins, terrorism is a phenomenon that is international in character and scope, and frequently observes no national borders. In 1985, U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz called for united international action to curb these "despicable acts." Here too, worldwide levels of cure need to be resorted to in order to combat such a universal malady. I consider factionalism to be the actual basis of terrorism, and terrorism to be the primary evil that afflicts our world today. I'll go into my thoughts on factionalism in greater detail in the near future. But suffice it for ne to now say that m purpose is to convince those who honor me by reading this that an overiding unity in society's organization and institutions would defuse and neutralize many of the factors that are at the basis of the factionalist problems that persist today. For unity is the opposite of factionalism; and the antidote for it as well. Since the 1980s, over and again, law-abiding people have been forced to deal with fear and foreboding in regard to threats that could be resorted to by terrorists as well as "rogue" nations: nuclear detonations, germ proliferations, and chemical attacks.
Regarding one of these dangers, a group representing 140 nations met in Paris in 1989 to discuss the menace of chemical weapons. Since then, we have witnessed an almost unceasing preoccupation with all three of the aforementioned subjects. And we have experienced as well several instances wherein groups have actually successfully used, or attempted to use, germs or spores (such as anthrax), and chemicals (such as the tragedy in the Japanese subway) to wreak havoc upon innocent people. It is evident that only through united measures and joint cooperation will those who seek to do harm to others for the sake of their own fanatical factionalist beliefs be able to be dealt with and defeated for all time.
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