U Thant (Front Page)

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THIRD UNITED NATIONS

SECRETARY-GENERAL

Secretary- General U Thant

(Term: 1961-1971)

Wars begin in the minds of men, and

in those minds, love and compassion

would have built the defences of peace.

(U Thant, 1909-1974)

Society of Burma (Des Moines, Iowa)

Secretary-General U Thant

is seen as he taped a Unit-

ed Nations Day message

for the UN Radio and Tele-vision at Headquarters on

October 12, 1971.


(right) calling on Prime

Minister Indira Ghandi of

India at her residence in

New Dehli during his offi-

cial visit to India on April

10, 1967.


(left) with USSR Premier

Nikita S. Krushchev

(center), Foreign Minister

Andre Gromyko and Deputy

Foreign Minister Valerian A.

Zorin, on April 10, 1967 in

Moscow. The Secretary-

General was present to

attend the signing of the

nuclear test-ban treaty by the representatives of the USSR, United

Kingdom and the United States.

U Thant, who served as Secretary-General of the United Nationsfrom 1961 to 1971, was chosen to head the world body when Sec-retary-General Dag Hammarskjold was killed in an air crash inSeptember 1961.

U Thant was born at Pantanaw, Burma, on 22 January 1909, andwas educated at the National High School in Pantanaw and atUniversity College, Rangoon.

Prior to his diplomatic career, U Thant's experience was in educa-tion and information work. He served as Senior Master at the Na-tional High School, which he had attended in Pantanaw, and in1931, he became Headmaster after winning first place in the Anglo-

Vernacular Secondary Teachership Examination.

He was a member of Burma's Textbook Committee and of theCouncil of National Education before World War II, and was anExecutive Committee member of the Heads of Schools Associa-

tion. He was also active as a free-lance journalist.

In 1942, U Thant served for a few months as Secretary of Burma'sEducation Reorganization Committee. In the following year, hereturned to the National High School as Headmaster for anotherfour years.

U Thant was appointed Press Director of the Government of Burmain 1947. In 1948, he became Director of Broadcasting, and in thefollowing year, he was appointed Secretary to the Government ofBurma in the Ministry of Information. In 1953, U Thant becameSecretary for projects in the Office of the Prime Minister, and in1955, he was assigned additional duties as Executive Secretary of

Burma's Economic and Social Board.

At the time of his appointment as Acting Secretary-General of theUnited Nations, U Thant had been Permanent Representative ofBurma to the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador (1957-

1961).

During that period, he headed the Burmese delegations to thesessions of the General Assembly, and in 1959, he served as oneof the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly's fourteenth session. In1961, U Thant was Chairman of the United Nations Congo Concilia-tion Commission and Chairman of the Committee on a UnitedNations Capital Development Fund.

During his diplomatic career, U Thant served on several occasionsas Adviser to Prime Ministers of Burma.

U Thant began serving as Acting Secretary-General since 3 No-vember 1961, when he was unanimously appointed by the GeneralAssembly, on the recommendation of the Security Council, to fillthe unexpired term of the late Secretary-General, Dag Hammar-skjold. He was then unanimously appointed Secretary-General bythe General Assembly on 30 November 1962 for a term of officeending on 3 November 1966.

U Thant was re-appointed for a second term as Secretary-Generalof the United Nations by the General Assembly on 2 December1966 on the unanimous recommendation of the Security Council(resolution 229, 1966). His term of office continued until 31 Decem-ber 1971.

U Thant received honorary degrees (LL.D) from the followinguniversities: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada (25 May 1962);Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts (10 June 1962);Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey (12 June 1962); MountHolyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts (2 June 1963);Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (13 June 1963);Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire (16 June 1963);University of California at Berkeley, California (2 April 1964); Uni-versity of Denver, Denver, Colorado (3 April 1964); SwarthmoreCollege, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania (8 June 1964); New York Uni-versity, New York (10 June 1964); Moscow University, Moscow,Soviet Union (30 July 1964); Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario

(22 May 1965); Colby College, Waterville, Maine (6 June 1965); YaleUniversity, New Haven, Connecticut (14 June 1965); University ofWindsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada (28 May 1966); Hamilton Col-lege, Clinton, New York (5 June 1966); Fordham University, Bronx,New York (8 June 1966); Manhattan College, New York (14 June1966); University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (30 March1967); Delhi University, New Delhi, India (13 April 1967); Universityof Leeds, England (26 May 1967); Louvain University, Brussels,Belgium (10 April 1968); University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada(13 May 1968); Boston Unversity, Boston, Massachusetts (19 May1968); Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey (29 May1968); University of Dublin (Trinity College), Dublin, Ireland (12July 1968); Laval University, Quebec, Canada (31 May 1969); Co-lumbia University, New York City (3 June 1969); the University ofthe Philippines (11 April 1970); and Syracuse University (6 June1970). He also received the following honorary degrees: Doctor ofDivinity, The First Universal Church (11 May 1970); Doctor of Inter-

national Law, Florida International University, Miami, Florida (25January 1971); Doctor of Laws, University of Hartford, Hartford,Connecticut (23 March 1971); Doctor of Civil Laws degree, honoriscausa, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, (30 May 1971);Doctor of Humane Letters, Duke University, Durham, North Caroli-na (7 June 1971).

U Thant retired at the end of his second term in 1971 and he diedon 25 November 1974 after a long illness.

(Source: http://www.un.org)

Third United Nations Secretary General U Thant

As we watch the sun go down, evening after evening, through the smog across

the poisoned waters of our native earth, we must ask o urselves seriously whether

we really wish some future universal historian on another planet to say about us:

"With all their genius and with all their skill, they ran out of foresight and air and

food and water and ideas," or, "They went o n playing politics until their world

collapsed around them." (U Thant, 1909-1974)

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U Thant (Front Page)