He won a second term in 1976 and might well have gone on to a third had China not insisted on a candidate from the Third World, throwing its backing to Waldheims ultimate successor, Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru. Waldheim won an accidental victory in the third round of voting when those three permanent members failed to coordinate their vetoes and all abstained. It was a complicated situation because some years earlier the United States had supported . After a period as director general for political affairs in the Austrian Foreign Ministry, he became his countrys ambassador to the UN (196468, 197071). [10] After publication, documents and witnesses came to light that revealed Waldheim's military service continued until 1945, during which time he rose to the rank of Oberleutnant. Waldheims precise involvement in these brutalities would be a matter of debate and investigation for years to come. Kurt Waldheim of Austria served as the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations for ten years, succeeding U Thant in 1972. [36][37][38] The 23 March 1986 public disclosure by the World Jewish Congress that the organization had unearthed the fact that the United Nations War Crimes Commission concluded after the war that Waldheim was implicated in Nazi mass murder and should be arrested arguably transformed the Waldheim affair into the most sensational of all post-war Nazi scandals. share. Unable to win a third term as secretary-general, Waldheim left the U.N. in 1982 and served as a visiting professor of diplomacy at Georgetown University in Washington for the next two years. Sklici in opombe Glej tudi . So far, the Justice Department was acting completely aboveboard. Kurt Josef Waldheim was born on December 21 1918 at Tulln, near Vienna. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-Waldheim, British Broadcasting Corporation - Kurt Waldheim, United Nations - Biography of Kurt Waldheim, Kurt Waldheim - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Report Save Follow. This marked the first time that a head of state had been put on an immigration watchlist. Reply. When defending himself against assertions that he had links to the Nazis, Waldheim always asserted that he never had belonged to a Nazi-affiliated group. Howard Stern's first Pay-Per-View (although only on the East Coast) with various guests and, not surprisingly, an audience in their negligees and underpants. His father was of Czech origin and was employed as a Roman Catholic inspector of schools. Kurt Waldheim was born on Dec. 21, 1918, in St. Andr-Wrdern, a village near Vienna. Kurt Waldheim, the former UN secretary general and president of Austria whose hidden complicity in Nazi war crimes was exposed late in his career, died Thursday in Vienna, Austrian media reported. There were a lot of them around. But sure, its this kind of ex post facto thing that we got into. On the other hand, some bad guys showed up. Waldheim weathered protests abroad, calls for his resignation at home and even the cold shoulder of some members of his own political party. (Later, when he was running for governor of California, Schwarzeneggers aides said he realized that the invitation and the toast had been a stupid mistake, one that -- had he known then what he knew later -- he would not have committed. A son, Gerhard, and another daughter, Christa, followed. While he was running for the latter office in the 1986 election, the revelation of his service in Greece and Yugoslavia as an intelligence officer in Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht . Kurt Waldheim, avstrijski astnik, pravnik, diplomat in politik, * 21. december 1918, Sankt Andr-Wrdern, Spodnja Avstrija, 14. junij 2007, Dunaj. Footage of Austria's then-presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim speaking at a rally, from "The Waldheim Waltz." Credit: Ruth Beckermann filmproduktion The 90-minute film interweaves the video shot by Beckermann with other archival footage, creating a dramatic account of the buildup to the 1986 election - a brief period in history when the eyes . His father, Walter, the son of an impoverished blacksmith, became the local school superintendent and . The Justice lawyer picked up Pan Am 103 in Frankfurt and was killed by the bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland.. Waldheim may have been able to hide his past for so long because of the web of intrigue between intelligence services in the Cold War era. William Bodde Jr, interviewed in October 1998, reflects on his time as a staff aide in Vienna during this controversy. Foreign Affairs magazine, SeptemberOctober, 1995 (Volume 74 No. 5), page 188. From left to right, Italian Cdmr. Waldheims initial denial of his Nazi past and obfuscation mirrored that of a nation. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [23] While in Tehran, it was announced that an attempt on Waldheim's life had been foiled. [West German Chancellor Helmut] Kohl used to meet with him unofficially when Kohl was on his annual summer vacation in Austria. Sternalso the former host of popular radio skit "Guess Who's the Jew" with perennial champ "Kurt Waldheim Jr.," played by longtime Stern show member Fred Norristook particular . Kurt Waldheim (1918-2007) served as secretary-general of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. WALDHEIM AFFAIR. [12] In 1986, Waldheim said that he had served only as an interpreter and a clerk and had no knowledge either of reprisals against local Serb civilians or of massacres in neighboring provinces of Yugoslavia. When I was in Vienna, Waldheim was Political Director of the Foreign Ministry. On the Policy Planning Staff several of the other members and I, who was supposed to know something about Austria, we all had access to all the intelligence that anybody else did. Kurt Waldheim served in the Austrian army as a volunteer (193637) before he began to study for a diplomatic career. Pamphlet. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Japan and Syria were the only two countries that laid wreaths on his grave. China was determined to unseat him this time and lined up a strong candidate in Salim Ahmed Salim of Tanzania. His father, Walter, the son of an impoverished blacksmith, became the local school superintendent and married a daughter of the mayor. Some Germans had stayed in Austria partly because they thought that the Occupation, which was not called Occupation, would be less rigorous and less de-Nazifying than it was in Germany. There was no comment or statement from the governors office Thursday on the death of Waldheim.). Ron Lauder, a political appointee, was Ambassador to Austria at the time. Fred played Kurt Waldheim, Jr. Great stuff. It was a period when the world body was increasingly dominated by third world rhetoric and paralyzed by disagreements between the superpowers. The resulting diplomatic strains between the U.S. and Austria encumbered relations for many years afterwards, as visa applicants who had traveled to the U.S. for years were abruptly denied, and Holocaust war crimes, initially shadowed by the Cold War, were suddenly brought to light. The film "Waldheim's Waltz" shows exactly the opposite. An international commission of historians has found "no proof" that Kurt Waldheim committed war crimes, according to the 200-page report it submitted to Chancellor Franz Vranitzky here Monday . [53] In a letter to the editor published in Foreign Affairs magazine two years after Rosenbaum's book was released, former Finnish ambassador to the U.N. Max Jakobson (one of the candidates whom the USSR had vetoed) wrote, "The Soviets knew everything about Waldheim. Waldheim did not attend but sent a gift, prompting Schwarzenegger to give what participants described as a very emotional toast in Waldheims honor. In the years between the discovery of his scandalous past and his death, Waldheim steadfastly portrayed himself as an ordinary, unheroic citizen caught up in a maelstrom, a point Herzstein reflected upon. There was testimony that he had roughed up some of the POWs. He went on to win the presidency in 1986, and less than a year later, the U.S. government formally barred him from entering the country, citing evidence it said showed that he had assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of Allied prisoners, Yugoslav partisans, Jews and other civilians. Many Austrians apparently viewed Waldheim's life as a parable of their own. We sent out a delegation headed by the Departments Deputy Legal Adviser to negotiate an arrangement that would include prior notification and so on. I suspect that he was more concerned with the hostility that he would face in Vienna in the wake of a ban. And he portrayed himself as the victim of a smear campaign orchestrated by outside, foreign forces. (Waldheim, second from left, with Italian General Ercole Roncaglia, Col. Hans Herbert Macholz, and SS-GruppenfhrerArtur Phleps at Podgorica airfield, May 1943.). [51] The report catalogues evidence that, the U.S. government concluded, proved that Waldheim had taken part in, among other actions: the transfer of civilian prisoners to the SS for exploitation as slave labor; the mass deportation of civiliansincluding Jews from Greek islands and the town of Banja Luka, Yugoslaviato concentration and death camps; the utilization of antisemitic propaganda; the mistreatment and execution of Allied prisoners; and reprisal executions of hostages and other civilians. The book also alleged that the Soviet Union was aware of Waldheim's alleged involvement in Nazi crimes and that, after vetoing other candidates in order to get Waldheim installed as U.N. Secretary General in 1972, used that information to extract concessions at the United Nations that facilitated KGB espionage in the United States, and that the CIA's failure to anticipate this possibility was a major failure for the intelligence agency. We have many differences with him, but that isn't one of them. [4] The World Jewish Congress was actively involved in the campaign to expose Waldheim's war crimes and ban him from . No, at least not during the Cold War when important strategic interests were at stake. Waldheims UN secretaryship beginning in 1972 was characterized as efficient and ministerial. These included the third session of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (Santiago, April 1972), the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, June 1972), the third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea (Caracas, June 1974), the Third World Population Conference (Bucharest, August 1974) and the World Food Conference (Rome, November 1974), and the World Conference on Women, 1975 (Mexico City, June 1975). Kurt Waldheim dies at 88; ex-UN chief hid Nazi past Kurt Waldheim, the former UN secretary general and president of Austria whose hidden complicity in Nazi war crimes was exposed late in his career, died Thursday in Vienna, Austrian media reported. The U.S. ban was never lifted. The Austrian had been a member of the Sturmabteilung, or SA, which provided military protection for the National Socialist German Workers Party, better known as . Both were interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy. Austria refused to pay compensation to victims of Nazism, and from 1970 onwards refused to investigate Austrian citizens who were senior Nazis. [31] In 1980, Waldheim flew to Iran in an attempt to negotiate the release of the American hostages held in Tehran, but Ayatollah Khomeini refused to see him. 27. helmikuuta - Yhdistyneiden kansakuntien psihteeri Kurt Waldheim nimitti varatuomari Helvi Sipiln YK:n sosiaaliasioiden apulaispsihteeriksi. Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian-born lawyer, soldier, politician, and envoy who served as the 4 th Secretary-General of the UN and the 9 th President of Austria. Noun 1. But what could I do? Kurt Waldheim; Sankt Andre-Verdern, blizu Bea, Austrija, 21. decembar 1918 Be 14. jun 2007) je bio austrijski politiar i diplomata.Njegov izbor za predsednika Austrije 1986. godine bio je zasenjen otkriima da je pripadao jedinici Hitlerovog Vermahta koja je u tadanjoj Jugoslaviji poinila ratne zloine nad civilima tokom Drugog svetskog rata. Its report in 1988 concluded that he repeatedly went along with [the Nazis] unlawful acts, thereby facilitated their execution and did nothing to prevent them. Waldheim admitted that he had not been candid about his past but disclaimed all knowledge of or participation in wartime atrocities. China cast a single symbolic veto against Waldheim in the first round and voted for him in the second round, handing him an easy victory with 14 of 15 votes on the Security Council. Updates? To make matters worse, the Justice Department would cut corners. president of Austria and secretary-general of the United Nations. Austria had continued to portray itself as a victim of the Third Reich, rather than its collaborator, long after Germany was paying reparations and banning neo-Nazi groups. "Kurt Waldheim did not, in fact, order, incite or personally commit what is commonly called a war crime," Herzstein wrote. Shultz said, Get out! But he was an important guy. Knfel, Ulrike and Kraske, Marion (4 April 2008), Wiesenthal, Simon (1999) "The Waldheim Case" in. Im happy Im not an intellectual ball of fire, Waldheim told reporters who gathered in his opulently appointed Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan when he was first elected to head the U.N. I dont think you can solve the U.N.'s problems that way. Omissions? M. Kurt Waldheim a entam son deuxime mandat de cinq ans en tant que . International uproar surged, especially as the World Jewish Congress and American and European media continued to air new revelations about Waldheims past. He won election to the Austrian presidency in June 1986 for a six-year term. English: Kurt Waldheim, secretary-general of the United Nations, during a press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York City Waldheims later claims that he spent the rest of World War II studying law at the University of Vienna were contradicted by the rediscovery in 1986 of documents suggesting that he had been a German army staff officer stationed in the Balkans from 1942 to 1945. Despite his humble beginnings, Waldheim was able to pursue university studies in law and diplomacy in Vienna. If we had done a little more digging, both 1946 and 1972 or whenever it was, we might have found out about him. Waldheim's father, a Czech by ethnic origin, changed his name from Waclawik to Waldheim. Political career. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles. Kurt Waldheim was born on Dec. 21, 1918, in St. Andr-Wrdern, a village near Vienna. Then, in March 1986, during the campaign, Waldheim was hit with damning disclosures. There are 296 days left in the year. He argued that the Austrian Prime Minister, a Social Democrat, was about to visit the U.S. and it would be a great embarrassment to him if we banned Waldheim. And, it was later discovered, he had served with the Abwehr, which was the German military counter-intelligence, and was probably co-responsible for war crimes. [33]:411 The events of 1981 established a two-term limit on the office, and no Secretary-General since Waldheim has run for a third term. Four years after returning from New York to Austria, Waldheim was hot on the campaign trail, all but certain of an . But thanks to his parents' middle-class standing, he and his brother and sister suffered few of the economic deprivations that most Austrians endured during the 1920s. Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981 and president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. And there was some fear that because of Finlands position, he might be subject to Soviet pressures. In 1985, he launched his bid for the presidency of Austria, a largely ceremonial post that he nevertheless wanted to take from the hands of the Socialist Party, which had held it 16 years. Shortly afterwards, he ran and was defeated in the 1971 Austrian presidential elections. [44], In view of the ongoing international controversy, the Austrian government decided to appoint an international committee of historians to examine Waldheim's life between 1938 and 1945. Kurt Waldheim, (born December 21, 1918, Sankt Andr-Wrdern, Austriadied June 14, 2007, Vienna), Austrian diplomat and statesman who served two terms as the fourth secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), from 1972 to 1981. 3. I had either to continue to serve or be executed. Kurt Josef Waldheim, fdd 21 december 1918 i Sankt Andr-Wrdern, Niedersterreich, dd 14 juni 2007 i Wien, var en sterrikisk politiker och diplomat. In 1986, four years after his tenure as the UN Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim made a bid to lead his native Austria. "But this nonguilt must not be confused with innocence. Despite his humble beginnings, Waldheim was able to pursue . While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Kurt Josef Waldheim (Sankt Andr-Wrdern, 21 dcembre 1918 - Vienne, 14 juin 2007) . 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