"I always believed the Nuremberg trial was justified by the necesity of establishing judicial precedent even before the establishment of the international law that it was meant to support. This justification was built on the basic truth that the world is unlikely to survive a third world war, which would almost certainly bring universal nuclear devastation. If we are to avoid that catastrophe, a system of world order - preferably s system of world government - is mandatory. The proud nations someday will see the light and, for the common good and their own survival, yield up their precious sovereignty, just as AmericaÕs thirteen colonies did two centuries ago.

When we finally come to our senses and establish a world executive and a parliament of nations, thanks to the Nuremberg precedent, we will already have in place the fundamentals for the third branch of government, the judiciary. This, to my mind, was the meaning of - and the justification for- Nuremberg."

- Walter Cronkite

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