On 23 June 1982, Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and again from October 1982 until his assassination in 1986, deliv-ered a speech at the United Nations (UN) Second Special Session on Disarmament, which in many respects echoes the spirit of the time in Western Europe. In his speech, he talked about disarmament and possible solutions to halt the nuclear arms race and prevent the world from run-ning into a nuclear war. Palme started off by thanking the global social movements for their disarmament engagement:
a special appreciation of the non-governmental organizations, the popular movements, the peace groups, the churches, the doctors, the trade unions, the scientists – all those that have together formed public opinion and have created such a strong popular support for disarmament in the last two years or so.