STATEMENT BY
SOVIET AMBASSADOR ZORIN, United Nations
Security Council Meeting, October 25, 1962
When
Mr. Stevenson today attempted to accuse the Soviet Union as the prime cause for
these aggressive actions on the part of the United States, I should like to draw
attention of the Council to a completely surprising fact.
In the statement of
President Kennedy of the 22nd of October, Mr. Kennedy said that during the last
week unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive
missile sites is now in preparation on that island.
On
the 16th of October the President of the United States had in his hands
incontrovertible information. What happened after that? On the 18th of October
the President of the United States was receiving the representative of the
Soviet Union, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Gromyko, two days after he
had already in his hands incontrovertible evidence.
One
may well ask why did the President of the United States in receiving the
minister of another power which the Government of the United States is now
accusing of dispatching offensive arms to Cuba against the United States, why
then did he not say a word to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet
Union with respect to these incontrovertible facts?
Why?
Because no such facts exist. The Government of the United States has no such
fact in its hands except these [sic] falsified
information of the United States Intelligence Agency, which are being displayed
for review in halls and which are sent to the press.
Falsity
is what the United States has in its hands, false evidence.
The
Government of the United States has deliberately intensified the crisis, has
deliberately prepared this provocation and had tried to cover up this
provocation by means of a discussion in the Security Council.
You
cannot conduct world policies and politics on such an opportunistic matter. Such
steps can lead you to catastrophic consequences for the whole world, and the
Soviet Government has issued a warning to the United States and to the world on
that score.
The
Soviet Union considers that the Government of the United States of America must
display reserve and stay the execution of its piratical threats, which are
fraught with the most serious consequence.
The
question of war and peace is so vital that we should consider useful a top level
meeting in order to discuss all the problems which have arisen to do everything
to remove the danger of unleashing a thermonuclear war.
Source: The New York Times, October 26, 1962, p. 16.