U Thant

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: U Thant

(born Jan. 22, 1909, Pantanaw, Burma — died Nov. 25, 1974, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Third secretary-general of the United Nations (1961 – 71), the first Asian to hold the post. He entered the University of Yangôn, but the death of his father forced him to discontinue his education before he was able to graduate. He taught high school before entering government service. Posted to the UN in 1952, he became Burma's UN ambassador in 1957. In 1961 he became acting secretary-general after the death of Dag Hammarskjöld; he became permanent secretary-general in 1962. While secretary-general, he played a diplomatic role in the Cuban missile crisis, devised a plan to end the Congolese civil war (1962), and sent peacekeeping forces to Cyprus (1964).

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Political Biography: U Thant

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(b. Pantanaw, 22 Jan. 1907; d. 25 Nov. 1974) Burmese; Secretary-General of the United Nations 1962 – 72 Born in the delta of the Irrawaddy River in Lower Burma under British rule, U Thant was educated at Rangoon University after winning a national translation competition as a high-school student. At the university he became an associate of a number of the leading student politicians of the period including the Burmese nationalist hero General Aung San and the subsequent Prime Minister U Nu. Older and less of an activist by nature than the nationalist leaders, he also worked with British Fabian intellectuals such as J. S. Furnivall in a number of educational and publishing ventures, including The World of Books magazine published in English in the early 1930s. He earned his living until the 1950s as a teacher in leading national high schools.

After Burma regained independence in 1948, Thant entered government service in the information ministry. There he worked closely with Prime Minister Nu. As a trusted associate, he represented Burma at the United Nations, becoming permanent representative in 1953. He was chosen acting Secretary-General after the death of Dag Hammarskjold in 1961. Following the Cold War dispute between the West and the Soviet Union over the future role of the United Nations and the Secretary-Generalship, he was elected in 1962 as Secretary-General in his own right as a neutral figure from one of the most active non-aligned states.

Thant's decade as Secretary-General was filled with a number of international crises. Those which were directly in the control of the two super powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, such as the Second Indochina War, he was less able to influence. However, during his first term, Thant had several remarkable successes. These included the transfer of Irian Jaya to Indonesian sovereignty from the Dutch (1962), the Cuban missile crisis (1962), the United Nations intervention in the civil war in the Congo (Zaire) (1963), the establishment of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (1964) and the ending of an Indian-Pakistan border war (1965). His second term was marked by fewer successes as he faced seemingly intractable problems in Indochina, the Middle East, and South Asia. However, he headed the UN during the period when the organization began to become much more deeply involved in development and social justice issues in the Third World. These were issues to which he could clearly relate from his own personal experience in Burma.

A deeply religious man, he published a number of books in Burmese as well as a memoir of his days as Secretary-General.

US Military Dictionary: U Thant

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Thant, U (1909-1974) a Myanmar educator, civil servant, and third secretary-general of the United Nations (1962-1971), Thant was born in Pantanaw, Burma (now Myanmar) and educated at the University of Yangôn (Rangoon). Because of the death of his father, however, he did not graduate, returning home, instead, to begin teaching at the National High School. In 1931 he became the school's headmaster, and, in 1942, became secretary to the educational reorganization committee of the Japanese government of occupied Burma. In 1943 he returned to Pantanaw and resumed his duties as headmaster at the high school there. At the end of World War II, U Nu, who had met Thant when they were both students at the University of Yangôn, and Gen. U Aung San (leader of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League) recruited him for government service. Before he became the Myanmar (Burmese) delegate to the United Nations(U.N.) in 1952, Thant served as his country's press director (1947), director of broadcasting (1948), and secretary of the Ministry of Information (1949).

After serving as Burma's permanent representative to the U.N. (1957), Thant became vice president of the U.N.'s General Assembly in 1959, and, after the death of Dag Hammarskjöld, accepted the position of acting secretary general of the U.N. in 1961 when the Soviet Union and the United States failed to find a mutually acceptable candidate. In 1962, he was elected again to that position, which he held until his retirement in 1971. In 1974, he died of cancer in New York City. When his body was sent back to Yangôn, however, university students seized it on December 5 and buried it in a hastily constructed mausoleum at the Arts and Sciences University. On December 11, the police took Thant's body back by force, buried him in a secret place, and sealed the tomb with concrete. To quell the rioting that followed these events, the military regime declared martial law.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Biography: U Thant

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U Thant (1909-1974) was a Burmese and the first non-European secretary general of the United Nations. Though U Thant was frustrated by his limited powers, his elevation to the highest executive position in the international organization was one of the key indicators of the new importance of Asian nations.

Born on Jan. 22, 1909, in Pantanaw in Burma (now Mynamar), U Thant was the first of four sons of U Po Hnit and his wife, Daw Nan Thaung - all of whom were to distinguish themselves in public life. Young Thant wanted to be a writer, particularly a journalist, and, although by no means an Anglophile of the sort then to be found in large numbers in still British-ruled Burma, he did enjoy writing in the English language. He published his first article in English in 1925 - at the age of 16 - in Burma Boy, an organ of the Burma Boy Scouts Association.

After leaving the National High School in his native Pantanaw, U Thant attended the University of Rangoon, graduating in 1929 at the age of 20. Returning to Pantanaw to help support his mother and permit his three brothers to continue their education, he took a job teaching in his high school alma mater, having finished first in the all-Burma teacher-certification examination. Also in 1929, young Thant published his first book, Cities and Their Stories, about Athens, Rome, and other great cities of history.

It was at Pantanaw National High School that U Thant became the close friend of another Rangoon University graduate (whom he had known, but not well, in college), U Nu - who was one day to become independent Burma's first premier after the termination of British colonial rule. Subsequently Thant became headmaster of the school and Nu its superintendent. At this time he also published a book on the United Nations' predecessor, the League of Nations.

When U Nu returned to Rangoon University to pursue a law degree in 1934, U Thant assumed the job of school superintendent as well as headmaster. The paths of the two young men then went off in different directions temporarily, Thant remaining in Pantanaw but increasing in stature among his fellow educators as a member of the Textbook Committee for Burma Schools, the Council of National Education, and the Burma Research Society. In 1935 he gained some limited fame as a result of a controversy - conducted by letters to newspapers - with Aung San, the emerging nationalist leader.

During World War II Thant served for a time as secretary of the Education Reorganization Committee under the occupying Japanese but, wearying of the task, returned to his teaching post in Pantanaw.

In 1945, when U Nu became vice president of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (or AFPFL, Burma's main nationalist movement), he persuaded U Thant to leave his beloved Pantanaw and take charge of publicity for the AFPFL. He was subsequently asked by Nu to take charge of the press section of the Information Department, where he was so successful that he soon became secretary of the Ministry of Information under the newly independent Burmese government.

Thant emerged as one of the key figures in Burmese political life when he subsequently became secretary to the prime minister, his old friend U Nu. Thant was Nu's alter ego - without whose concurrence he rarely made a major decision. Some observers date the beginning of Nu's later political decline with the assignment of Thant in 1957 as Burma's permanent representative to the UN - a move designed to give the Burmese the best possible representation in the international body.

On Nov. 3, 1961, Thant was named acting UN secretary general following Dag Hammarskjöld's death and was confirmed in the post on Nov. 30, 1962. On Dec. 2, 1966, he was elected to a second 5-year term.

As leader of the world organization, Thant strove to bring peace to the Middle East and, although the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War did take place, he was successful at various times in restraining the rival combatants. He made a major effort in 1968 to end the fighting in Vietnam, and his diplomatic activity was a factor leading up to the March partial bombing halt by U.S. president Lyndon Johnson and the subsequent start of the Paris peace talks.

In December 1971 Kurt Waldheim of Austria was chosen to succeed Thant as secretary general. Thant officially retired as secretary general on Jan. 1, 1972. He moved to Harrison, NY, and died in New York City on Nov. 25, 1974.

U Thant

3rd Secretary-General of the United Nations
In office November 30, 1961 – January 1, 1972
Preceded by	Dag Hammarskjöld
Succeeded by	Kurt Waldheim

Born	January 22, 1909(1909-01-22) Pantanaw, Burma, British India
Died	November 25, 1974 (aged 65) New York City, USA
Nationality	Burmese
Spouse(s)	Daw Thein Tin
Religion	Buddhism

Early days

Thant was born in Pantanaw, Lower Burma, and was educated at the National High School in Pantanaw and at University College, Rangoon, where he studied history. He was the eldest of four sons and was born into a family of well-to-do landowners and rice merchants. His father, U Po Hnit, who came "from a mixed background, with both Muslim and Buddhist forebears," had helped establish The Sun (Thuriya) newspaper in Rangoon.^[2] He was also a founding member of the Burma Research Society. His father died when Thant was 14, and a series of inheritance disputes forced Thant's mother, Nan Thaung, and her four children into difficult financial times.^{[citation needed]}

After university Thant returned to Pantanaw to teach at the National School and had become its headmaster by the age of 25. During this time he became close friends with future prime minister U Nu, who was from neighbouring Maubin and was the local superintendent of schools. Thant regularly contributed to several newspapers and magazines under the pen name "Thilawa" and translated a number of books, including one on the League of Nations. U Thant was a devout Buddhist.

Civil servant

When U Nu became the prime minister of the newly independent Burma, he asked Thant to join him in Rangoon and appointed him director of broadcasting in 1948. In the following year he was appointed secretary to the government of Burma in the Ministry of Information. From 1951 to 1957, Thant was secretary to the prime minister, writing speeches for U Nu, arranging his foreign travel, and meeting foreign visitors. During this entire period, he was U Nu's closest confidant and advisor.

He also took part in a number of international conferences and was the secretary of the first Asian-African summit in 1955 at Bandung, Indonesia, which gave birth to the Non-Aligned Movement. From 1957 to 1961, he was Burma's permanent representative to the United Nations and became actively involved in negotiations over Algerian independence. In 1960, the Burmese government awarded him the title Maha Thray Sithu as a commander in the order of Pyidaungsu Sithu.

UN secretary-general

Thant began serving as acting secretary-general from November 3, 1961, when he was unanimously appointed by the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Security Council, to fill the unexpired term of Dag Hammarskjöld. He was then unanimously appointed secretary-general by the General Assembly on November 30, 1962, for a term of office ending on November 3, 1966. During this first term he was widely credited for his role in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis and for ending the civil war in the Congo. He also said that he wanted to ease tensions between major powers while serving in the UN. ^[3]

In April 1964, Thant accepted the Holy See’s designation of itself as a permanent observer. There appeared to be no involvement of the General Assembly or the UN Security Council in the decision. ^[4]

U Thant was re-appointed secretary-general of the United Nations by the General Assembly on December 2, 1966, on the unanimous recommendation of the Security Council. His term of office continued until December 31, 1971, when he retired. During his time in office, he oversaw the entry into the UN of dozens of new Asian and African states and was a firm opponent of apartheid in South Africa. He also established many of the UN's development and environmental agencies, funds and programmes, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN University, UNCTAD, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and the UN Environmental Programme.

Unlike his two predecessors,^{[citation needed]} Thant retired after ten years on speaking terms with all the big powers. In 1961, when he was first appointed, the Soviet Union had tried to insist on a troika formula of three secretaries-general, one representing each Cold War bloc, something which would have maintained equality in the United Nations between the superpowers. By 1966, when Thant was reappointed, all the big powers, in a unanimous vote of the Security Council, affirmed the importance of the secretary-generalship and his good offices, a clear tribute to Thant's work.

The Six Day War between Arab countries and Israel, the Prague Spring and subsequent Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 leading to the birth of Bangladesh all took place during his tenure as secretary-general.

He was widely criticized in the US and Israel for agreeing to pull UN troops out of the Sinai in 1967 in response to a request from Egyptian president Nasser.^{[citation needed]} U Thant tried to persuade Nasser not to go to war with Israel by flying to Cairo in a last-minute peace effort.

His once good relationship with the US government deteriorated rapidly when he publicly criticized American conduct of the Vietnam War. His secret attempts at direct peace talks between Washington and Hanoi were eventually rejected by the Johnson Administration.

Thant followed UFO reports with some interest; in 1967, he arranged for American atmospheric physicist James E. McDonald to speak before the UN's Outer Space Affairs Group regarding UFOs.^[5]

On January 23, 1971, U Thant categorically announced that he would "under no circumstances" be available for a third term as secretary-general. For many weeks, the UN Security Council was deadlocked over the search for a successor before finally settling on Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as secretary-general on December 21, 1971—Waldheim's 53rd birthday—and just ten days before U Thant's second term was to end.

In his farewell address to the United Nations General Assembly, Secretary-General U Thant stated that he felt a "great sense of relief bordering on liberation" on relinquishing the "burdens of office". In an editorial published around December 27, 1971, praising U Thant, The New York Times stated that "the wise counsel of this dedicated man of peace will still be needed after his retirement". The editorial was titled "The Liberation of U Thant".

While serving as secretary-general, U Thant lived in Riverdale, Bronx, on a 4.75-acre (1.92 ha) estate near 232nd Street, between Palisade and Douglas avenues.^[6]

Death

U Thant's tomb, Shwedagon Pagoda Road, Yangon

U Thant died of lung cancer in New York on November 25, 1974. By that time Burma was ruled by a military junta which refused him any honors. The then Burmese president Ne Win was envious of U Thant's international stature and the respect that was accorded him by the Burmese populace. Ne Win also resented U Thant's close links with the democratic government of U Nu which Ne Win had overthrown in a coup d'etat on March 2, 1962. Ne Win ordered that U Thant be buried without any official involvement or ceremony.

From the United Nations headquarters in New York, U Thant's body was flown back to Rangoon, but no guard of honour or high ranking officials were on hand at the airport when the coffin arrived except for U Aung Tun, deputy minister of education, who was subsequently dismissed from office.^{[citation needed]}

On the day of U Thant's funeral on December 5, 1974, tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Rangoon to pay their last respects to their distinguished countryman, whose coffin was displayed at Rangoon's Kyaikasan race course for a few hours before the scheduled burial.

The coffin of U Thant was then snatched by a group of students just before it was scheduled to leave for burial in an ordinary Rangoon cemetery. The student demonstrators buried U Thant on the former grounds of the Rangoon University Students Union (RUSU), which Ne Win had dynamited and destroyed on July 8, 1962.

During the period of December 5–11, 1974, the student demonstrators also built a temporary mausoleum for U Thant on the grounds of the RUSU and gave anti-government speeches. In the early morning hours of December 11, 1974, government troops stormed the campus, killed some of the students guarding the makeshift mausoleum, removed U Thant's coffin, and reburied it at the foot of the Shwedagon Pagoda, where it has continued to lie.

Upon hearing of the storming of the Rangoon University campus and the forcible removal of U Thant's coffin, many people rioted in the streets of Rangoon. Martial law was declared in Rangoon and the surrounding metropolitan areas. What has come to be known as the U Thant Crisis—the student-led protests over the shabby treatment of U Thant by the Ne Win government—was crushed by the Burmese government.^{[citation needed]}

In 1978, U Thant's memoirs, View from the UN, were posthumously published, initially by the American publishing house Doubleday.

Personal life

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U Thant had three brothers: Pantanaw U Khant, U Thaung, and U Tin Maung. U Thant was a licensed radio amateur, call-sign XZ2TH. He was married to Daw Thein Tin. U Thant lost both sons. Maung Bo died in infancy. Tin Maung Thant fell from a bus during his visit to Rangoon. Tin Maung Thant's funeral procession, which was attended by dignitaries, was grander than that of the state funeral of Commodore Than Pe, member of the 17-man Revolutionary Council and minister of health and education. Thant was survived by a daughter, an adopted son, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren (three girls and two boys). His only grandson, Thant Myint-U, is a historian and a former senior official in the UN's Department of Political Affairs and the author of The River of Lost Footsteps, in part a biography of U Thant.

In popular culture

In the Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do, when drummer Guy Patterson is skeptical of guitarist Jimmy Mattingly being a genius, he quips, "If Jimmy's a genius, then I'm U Thant."^{[citation needed]}
In Herbie #5 (Nov. 64), Herbie Popnecker met U Thant and was assigned to stop communism in India.^{[citation needed]}
In Larry Niven's science-fiction novel Protector (novel), there is a spaceship named after U Thant.

Named for him

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The U Thant Peace Award acknowledges and honours individuals or organizations for distinguished accomplishments toward the attainment of world peace.
The embassy road, Jalan U Thant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is named after him.
A tiny island in the East River opposing the headquarters of the United Nations, U Thant Island, is named for him.
U Thant Honorary Lecture Series has been held regularly at the United Nations University (UNU) Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.
United Nations University (UNU) Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan has named their premiere conference facility after him.
The United Nations International School faculty votes to elect a Junior as the U Thant Scholar, equivalent to valedictorian.

References

^ vintage news video
^ The River of Lost Footsteps. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2006. ISBN 0374163421.
^ "1962 In Review, upi.com"
^ Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, Interventions
^ Letter to U Thant / James E. McDonald. - Tucson, Ariz. : J.E. McDonald, 1967. - 2 s;Druffel, Ann; Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science; 2003, Wild Flower Press; ISBN 0-926524-58-5
^ Dunlap, David W. "Bronx Residents Fighting Plans Of a Developer", The New York Times, November 16, 1987. Accessed 2008-05-04. "A battle has broken out in the Bronx over the future of the peaceful acreage where U Thant lived when he headed the United Nations. A group of neighbors from Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil has demanded that the city acquire as a public park the 4.75-acre (19,200 m²) parcel known as the Douglas-U Thant estate, north of 232d Street, between Palisade and Douglas Avenues."

External links

U Thant at Find a Grave
UN Photos of U Thant from the United Nations website
Official U.N.S.G. biography from the United Nations website
Peace Eludes U Thant Henry Soe-Win, Asian Tribune, June 17, 2008

Political offices
Preceded by Dag Hammarskjöld Sweden	United Nations Secretary-General 1961 – 1972	Succeeded by Kurt Waldheim Austria

v • d • e Secretaries-General of the League of Nations and United Nations

League of Nations (1919-1945)	James Eric Drummond (United Kingdom) • Joseph Louis Anne Avenol (France) • Seán Lester (Irish Free State)

United Nations (since 1945)	Gladwyn Jebb (United Kingdom)* • Trygve Lie (Norway) • Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden) • U Thant (Burma) • Kurt Waldheim (Austria) Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (Peru) • Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt) • Kofi Annan (Ghana) • Ban Ki-moon (South Korea)

*Gladwyn Jebb was provisional Secretary-General of the United Nations prior to the election of Trygve Lie

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