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U. Thant, the United Nations’ third secretary-general and its first non-European, was born in Burma (Myanmar) in the small town of Pantanaw on January 22, 1909. Thant began his career as a schoolteacher in Pantanaw, eventually rising to the positions of headmaster and school superintendent. Following World War II (1939-1945) and the end of British colonial rule, his close friend, U. Nu (1907-1995), prime minister of the newly independent state of Burma, drew him into government service. There followed a number of important government appointments, culminating in Thant’s designation as Burma’s ambassador to the United Nations (1957-1961). Thant was selected as secretary-general on November 3, 1961, following the death of Dag Hammarskjold (1905-1961) in a plane crash in Africa.
Thant’s ten years as UN secretary-general unfolded within the context of a continuing cold war rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union and the emergence onto the world scene of scores of newly independent states, drawn primarily from Africa and Asia. He managed during his two terms to secure the legitimacy of the position of secretary-general, which had come under assault from the Soviet Union during the last year of Hammarskjold’s life, but he did little to expand the powers of the office. He proved himself a vigorous advocate for the economic concerns of third world nations and a vocal opponent of colonialism in southern Africa, but when he left office, in December 1971, the inequitable distribution of global wealth and continuing colonial situations in South Africa, Rhodesia, Namibia, and Angola remained as intractable as ever.
Thant’s early years in office found him working in cooperation with the United States to quell a secession in the Congo and to fashion major peacekeeping initiatives in West New Guinea, Yemen, Malaysia, Cyprus, and Kashmir. His role as diplomatic facilitator during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, although modest, earned him the respect of both superpowers and an extended first term as secretary-general. However, by the time of his reappointment to a second term, in 1966, Thant was expressing increasing frustration with his role. The UN’s effectiveness was threatened by the refusal of the Soviet Union and France to contribute to peacekeeping operations. The fiscal crisis that emerged escalated into a political crisis when the United States, invoking Article 19 of the UN Charter, sought unsuccessfully to deny the Soviets a vote in the General Assembly. Further frustrating Thant was his inability to broker an end to the Vietnam War (1957-1975), despite his publicly voiced opposition to the American war effort.
Thant’s last years in office were characterized by renewed frustrations. In 1967 he quickly surrendered to Egyptian demands that he remove UNEF (United Nations Emergency Force) from Egypt’s border with Israel, thus earning widespread blame for the ensuing Arab-Israeli war. In 1971 the United Nations and Thant stood by helplessly as insurrection in the eastern part of Pakistan led to war between Pakistan and India and the dismemberment of Pakistan. Although pressed to assume a third term, Thant retired from office in December 1971.
Thant died on November 25, 1974. Denied a state funeral by the military junta that had ousted U. Nu in 1962, Thant’s body was seized by antigovernment students who buried him, with full honors, at Rangoon University and used the occasion to stage antigovernment demonstrations. Government forces reclaimed Thant’s body in a bloody confrontation with the student protesters and buried him near a major Buddhist pagoda in Rangoon.
Bibliography:
- Condier, Andrew, and Max Harrelson, eds. 1976. Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations, Vols. 6–7. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Firestone, Bernard J. 2001. The United Nations under U Thant, 1961–1971. London: Scarecrow Press.
- Thant, U. 1978. View from the UN. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
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