Thant (Burmese:သန့်,MLCTS:san.,pronounced[θa̰ɰ̃]; 22January 1909 – 25November 1974), known honorifically asU Thant (/uːθɑːnt/),[a] was a Burmese diplomat and the thirdsecretary-general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, the first non-Scandinavian as well as Asian to hold the position. He held the office for a record 10 years and one month.[b]
A native ofPantanaw, Thant was educated at the National High School and atRangoon University. In the days of tense political climate in Burma, he held moderate views positioning himself between fervent nationalists and British loyalists. He was a close friend of Burma's first Prime MinisterU Nu and served in various positions in Nu's cabinet from 1948 to 1961. Thant had a calm and unassuming demeanour that won his colleagues' respect.[2]
He succeededJames Barrington as Burma'sPermanent Representative to the United Nations. He was appointed Secretary-General in 1961, six weeks after his predecessor,Dag Hammarskjöld, haddied in an air crash. In his first term, Thant facilitated negotiations between U.S. presidentJohn F. Kennedy and Soviet premierNikita Khrushchev during theCuban Missile Crisis of 1962, helping to avert a global catastrophe. Later, in December that year, Thant orderedOperation Grandslam, which ended a secessionist insurgency inCongo. He was reappointed as Secretary-General on 2 December 1966, by a unanimous vote of the Security Council. During his second term Thant was well known for publicly criticizing U.S. conduct in theVietnam War. He oversaw the entry of several newly independent African and Asian states into the UN. He refused to serve a third term, and retired in 1971.
Thant died oflung cancer in 1974. A devoutBuddhist and the foremost Burmese diplomat on the international stage, he was widely admired and held in great respect by the Burmese populace. When the military government refused him any honours, riots erupted in Rangoon; these were violently crushed by the government, leaving scores of casualties.
Thant, the eldest of four sons, was born inPantanaw,Colonial Burma, to a moderately wealthy family of landowners and rice merchants. His father Po Hnit, who had been educated inCalcutta, was the only person in the town who could communicate well in English.[3] He was a founding member of theBurma Research Society and had helped establishThe Sun (Thuriya) newspaper in Rangoon.[3][4] Although his family members were ethnicBamars and devoutBuddhists, Thant's father, according toThant Myint-U (U Thant's grandson), had distant ancestors who were "people from both India and China, Buddhists and Muslims, as well as Shans and Mons".[5] He hoped that all his four sons would each earn a degree.[6] His other sons, Khant, Thaung, and Tin Maung went on to become politicians and scholars.[4]
Po Hnit had collected a personal library of various American and British books and cultivated a reading habit among his children. As a result, Thant became an avid reader and his school friends nicknamed him "The Philosopher".[7] Apart from reading, he enjoyed various sports including hiking, swimming and playingchinlone.[8] He went to the National High School in Pantanaw. At the age of eleven Thant participated in strikes against the University Act of 1920. He dreamed of becoming a journalist and surprised the family by writing an article for theUnion of Burma Boy Scouts magazine. When Thant was fourteen, his father died and a series of inheritance disputes forced Thant's mother, Nan Thaung, and her four children into difficult financial times.[9]
After the death of his father, Thant believed he would not be able to complete a four-year degree and instead worked for a two-year teaching certificate at Rangoon University in 1926. As the eldest son he had to fulfill his filial duties and responsibilities to the family. At university, Thant, together with futurePrime Minister Nu studied history underD. G. E. Hall. Nu was told by a distant mutual relative to take care of Thant and the two soon became close friends.[10] Thant was elected joint secretary of the University Philosophical Association and secretary of the Literary and Debating Society.[11] In Rangoon, Thant metJ.S. Furnivall, the founder of The Burma Book Club andThe World of Books magazine, to which Thant regularly contributed. Promising a good post, Furnivall urged Thant to complete a four-year university course and join the Civil Service, but Thant refused.[12] After earning the certificate, he returned to Pantanaw to teach at the National High School as a senior teacher in 1928. He contacted Furnivall and Nu regularly, writing articles and participating inThe World of Books translation competitions.[13]
In 1931, Thant won first place in All Burma Teachership Examination and became the school's headmaster by the age of twenty-five.[14][15] Urged by Thant, his friend Nu took the local superintendent of schools position. Thant regularly contributed to several newspapers and magazines under the pen name "Thilawa" and translated a number of books, including one on theLeague of Nations.[16] His major influences were SirStafford Cripps,Sun Yat-sen andMahatma Gandhi.[7] In the days of tense political climate in Burma, Thant stood moderate grounds between fervent nationalists and British loyalists.[15]
During World War II, the Japanese occupied Burma from 1942 to 1945. They brought Thant to Rangoon to lead the Educational Reorganizing Committee. However, Thant did not have any real power, and returned to Pantanaw. When teaching the Japanese language was made compulsory in Pantanaw high schools, Thant defied the orders and cooperated with the growing anti-Japanese resistance.[17]
In 1948,Burma gained independence from the United Kingdom. Nu became the prime minister of the newly independent Burma and appointed Thant as director of broadcasting in 1948. By then, civil war had broken out. TheKaren insurgency began and Thant risked his life to go to Karen camps to negotiate for peace. The negotiations broke down, and in 1949 the advancing insurgents burned his hometown, including his house. The insurgents pushed the front to within four miles of the capital Rangoon before they were beaten back. In the following year, Thant was appointed secretary to the government of Burma in theMinistry 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.[17]
He also took part in a number of international conferences and was the secretary of the 1955Bandung Conference inIndonesia, which gave birth to theNon-Aligned Movement. From 1957 to 1961, he was Burma's permanent representative to the United Nations and became actively involved in negotiations overAlgerian independence. In 1961, Thant was named Chairman of the UN Congo Commission. The Burmese government awarded him the titleMaha Thray Sithu as a commander in theorder of Pyidaungsu Sithu.[18]
In September 1961, United Nations Secretary-GeneralDag Hammarskjöld was killedin a plane crashen route to Congo. Within two weeks, the United States and the Soviet Union had agreed to appoint Thant as the Acting Secretary-General for the remainder of Hammarskjöld's term. However, the two superpowers spent another four weeks arguing over the details of his appointment. On 3 November 1961, theSecurity Council recommended Thant inResolution 168, and theGeneral Assembly voted unanimously to appoint Thant to a term of office ending on 10 April 1963.[19]
During his first term, he was widely credited for his role in defusing theCuban Missile Crisis and for ending thecivil war in the Congo. He also said that he wanted to ease tensions between major powers while serving at the UN.[20]
At a critical moment—when the nuclear powers seemed set on a collision course—the Secretary-General's intervention led to the diversion of the Soviet ships headed for Cuba and interception by our Navy. This was the indispensable first step in the peaceful resolution of the Cuban crisis.
Thant withJohn F. Kennedy during Kennedy's 1961 visit to the UN Headquarters
In less than one year in office, Thant faced a critical challenge to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis, the moment when the world came closest to a nuclear war. On 20 October 1962, two days before public announcements were made, U.S. presidentJohn F. Kennedy showed ThantU-2 aerial reconnaissance photographs of Soviet missile installations in Cuba. The president then ordered a naval "quarantine" to remove all offensive weapons from Soviet ships bound for Cuba. Meanwhile, Soviet ships were approaching the quarantine zone. To avoid a naval confrontation, Thant proposed that the U.S. should make non-invasion guarantees in exchange for missile withdrawal from the Soviet Union. Soviet Premier Khrushchev welcomed the proposal, which formed the basis of further negotiations.[22] Khrushchev further agreed to suspend missile shipments while the negotiations were ongoing.[23] However, on 27 October 1962, a U-2 plane was shot down over Cuba, deepening the crisis. Kennedy was under intense pressure to invade from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and theExecutive Committee (ExComm). Kennedy hoped Thant would play the role of mediator and subsequently replied to ExComm and the Joint Chiefs, "On the other hand we have U Thant, and we don't want to sink a ship...right in the middle of when U Thant is supposedly arranging for the Russians to stay out."[24]
Negotiations continued. The U.S. agreed to dismantle missiles in Turkey and guaranteed never to invade Cuba in exchange for removal of Soviet missiles in Cuba. Thant flew to Cuba and discussed withFidel Castro allowing UN missile inspectors and the return of the body of the downed U-2 pilot. Castro, furious that the Soviets had agreed to remove missiles without his knowledge, categorically rejected any UN inspectors, although he did return the pilot's body. The inspection was done at sea by US reconnaissance aircraft and warships. The crisis was resolved and a war between superpowers was averted.[15][25]
Thant's reappointment was assured when Soviet PremierNikita Khrushchev made several favorable references to Thant in letters to U.S. president John F. Kennedy.[26] In November 1962, the General Assembly voted unanimously to promote Thant from Acting Secretary-General to Secretary-General for a term ending on 3 November 1966.[27] For personal reasons, Thant wanted his term to end five years from his initial appointment,[26] and he would henceforth consider his first five years in office to be a single term.[28]
Although a manifest pacifist and a devout Buddhist, Thant did not hesitate to use force when required. During the Congo Civil War in 1962, Katangan secessionists led byMoise Tshombe repeatedly attacked UN Operation in the Congo forces (ONUC). In December 1962, after ONUC suffered a sustained four-day attack in Katanga, Thant ordered the "Operation Grandslam" to gain "complete freedom of movement for ONUC all over Katanga." The operation proved to be decisive and ended the secessionist insurgency once and for all. By January 1963, the secessionist capitalElizabethville was under full UN control.[29] In his speech atColumbia University Thant expressed expectation of completion of theUnited Nations Operation in the Congo in mid 1964.[30]
For his role in defusing the Cuban crisis and other peacekeeping efforts, the Norwegian Permanent Representative of the United Nations informed Thant that he would be awarded the 1965 Nobel Peace Prize. He humbly replied, "Is not the Secretary-General merely doing his job when he works for peace?"[2] On the other hand, ChairmanGunnar Jahn of the Nobel Peace Prize committee lobbied heavily against giving Thant the prize, which was, at the last minute, awarded toUNICEF. The rest of the committee all wanted the prize to go to Thant. The disagreement lasted three years, and in 1966 and 1967 no prize was given, with Gunnar Jahn effectively vetoing an award to Thant.[31] Outraged, Thant's undersecretary and Nobel Prize laureateRalph Bunche called Gunnar Jahn's decision "gross injustice to U Thant."[2]
In April 1964, Thant accepted theHoly See's designation of itself as a UNpermanent observer.[32] There appeared to be no involvement of the General Assembly or the UN Security Council in the decision.[33]
After the Six-Day War, [Thant] allowed himself to become a convenient scapegoat for international inaction, accepting this unenviable role with as much Buddhist detachment as could be summoned.
Thant meeting with U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson in the Cabinet Room of the White House on 21 February 1968
He was criticized in the US and Israel for agreeing to pull UNEF troops out of theSinai in 1967 in response to a request fromEgyptian presidentGamal Abdel Nasser.[38] The Permanent Representative of Egypt had informed Thant that the Egyptian government had decided to terminate UNEF's presence in the Sinai and the Gaza Strip, and requested steps that would withdraw the force as soon as possible, which Thant was obligated to accept[citation needed]. The UN afterwards stated, "Because Israel refused to accept UNEF on its territory, the Force had to be deployed only on the Egyptian side of the border, and thus its functioning was entirely contingent upon the consent of Egypt as the host country. Once that consent was withdrawn, its operation could no longer be maintained."[39] Thant, by flying toCairo in a last-minute peace effort, tried to persuade Nasser not to go to war with Israel.[citation needed]
In Israel, his abrupt unilateral withdrawal of UNEF without any diplomatic process or wider consultation was regarded as a violation of United Nations assurances and commitments given to Israel in 1957, on the basis of which Israel had withdrawn from Sinai and Gaza at that time,[40] and it "thereafter inspired Israel's refusal to place her vital interests again in United Nations hands".[41]
Thant's once good relationship with the US government deteriorated rapidly when he publicly criticized American conduct of theVietnam War.[42] His secret attempts at direct peace talks betweenWashington andHanoi were eventually rejected by theJohnson administration.[citation needed]
In 1971, the participation of thePeople's Republic of China in the United Nations, which was a long-standing problem, was realized. Thant sent a message to the Chinese government asking China to send a delegation.[43]
On 23 January 1971, Thant announced that he would "under no circumstances" be available for a third term as secretary-general. The1971 United Nations Secretary-General selection was delayed by the anticipated arrival of the People's Republic of China, and the Security Council did not begin voting until two weeks before the end of Thant's term. After every candidate was vetoed in the second round,Kurt Waldheim accidentally won in the third round when the United States, United Kingdom, and China failed to coordinate their vetoes and all abstained.[44]
Unlike his two predecessors, Thant retired after ten years on speaking terms with all the big powers. In 1961, when he was first appointed, theSoviet Union tried to insist on atroika formula of three secretaries-general, one representing eachCold War bloc, to maintain 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.[15]
In his farewell address to the United Nations General Assembly, Secretary-General Thant stated that he felt a "great sense of relief bordering on liberation" on relinquishing the "burdens of office".[45][46] In an editorial published around 27 December 1971, praising 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".[47]
After his retirement, Thant was appointed a senior fellow of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs. He spent the last years of his life writing and advocating the development of a true global community and other general themes he had tried to promote while he was secretary-general.[15] While serving as secretary-general, Thant lived inRiverdale, Bronx, on a 4.75-acre (1.92 ha) estate near 232nd Street, between Palisade and Douglas Avenues.[48]
Thant died of lung cancer at theNewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York on 25 November 1974.[45] By then, Burma was ruled by amilitary junta, which refused him any honours. Burmese presidentNe Win was supposedly envious of Thant's international stature and the respect that was accorded him by the Burmese populace.
However, Thant's grandson,Thant Myint-U, wrote in the bookThe River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma that intense animosity between Thant and Ne Win went back only to 1969, when Ne Win believed Thant was conniving with Nu after Nu denounced Ne Win at a press corps meeting at the UN headquarters. Ne Win told his men to consider Thant as an enemy of the state, despite Thant denouncing Nu's action as inappropriate.[50]
Ne Win ordered for Thant to be buried without any official involvement or ceremony.
From the United Nations headquarters in New York where he was laid in state, Thant's body was flown back toRangoon, but no guard of honour or high-ranking officials were at hand at the airport when the coffin arrived except for U Aung Tun, deputy minister of education, who was subsequently dismissed from office.[51] On the day of Thant's funeral on 5 December 1974, tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Rangoon to pay their last respects. Thant's coffin was displayed at Rangoon'sKyaikkasan Race Course for a few hours before the scheduled burial. The coffin of Thant was then snatched by a group of students just before it was scheduled to leave for burial in an ordinary Rangoon cemetery atKyandaw. The student demonstrators buried Thant on the former grounds of the Rangoon University Students Union (RUSU), which Ne Win had dynamited anddestroyed on 8 July 1962.[52]
During the period of 5–11 December, the student demonstrators also built a temporary mausoleum for Thant on the grounds of the RUSU and gave anti-government speeches. In early morning on 12 December 1974, government troops stormed the campus, killed some of the students guarding the makeshift mausoleum, removed Thant's coffin, and reburied it inKandawmin Garden Mausolea near theShwedagon Pagoda, where it has continued to lie.[53] Upon hearing of the storming of theRangoon University campus and the forcible removal of 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 Thant by the Ne Win government, was crushed by the Burmese government.[53]
In April 2012, UN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon paid his respects at U Thant's mausoleum during a visit to Yangon.[54]
U Thant is held in esteem inMalaysia, as he helped to endorse the formation of the country in 1963.[55] A niche, prime neighbourhood inKuala Lumpur,Taman U-Thant is developed in 1960s is named after him.[56]
Thant and his family, including brothers Khant Thaung and Tin Maung, his mother Nan Thaung, and his daughter Aye Aye Thant and her husband, Tin Myint-U, in 1964
Thant had three brothers: Khant, Thaung, and Tin Maung.[57] He was married to Daw Thein Tin. They had two sons and a daughter, but lost both sons; Maung Bo died in infancy, and Tin Maung Thant fell from a bus during a visit to Yangon. Tin Maung Thant's funeral procession, which was attended by dignitaries, was grander than that of the state funeral of Commodore Than Pe, a member of the 17-manRevolutionary 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 ofThe River of Lost Footsteps, in part a biography of Thant.[citation needed]
Thant received honorary degrees (LL.D) from Carleton University,Williams College, Princeton University, Mount Holyoke College, Harvard University, Dartmouth College, University of California at Berkeley, University of Denver, Swarthmore College, New York University, Moscow University, Queen's University,Colby College, Yale University, University of Windsor, Hamilton College, Fordham University, Manhattan College, University of Michigan, Delhi University, University of Leeds,Louvain University, University of Alberta, Boston University, Rutgers University, University of Dublin (Trinity College),Laval University, Columbia University, theUniversity of the Philippines Diliman, and Syracuse University. He also received the Doctor of Divinity from The First Universal Church; Doctor of International Law from Florida International University; Doctor of Laws from University of Hartford; Doctor of Civil Laws degree, honoris causa from Colgate University; Doctor of Humane Letters from Duke University.[60]
In his memory,Sri Chinmoy, the leader of the UN Meditation Group founded by Thant, established theU Thant Peace Award which acknowledges and honors individuals or organizations for distinguished accomplishments toward the attainment of world peace. The meditation team also named a tiny island in the East River opposite the headquarters of the United NationsU Thant Island.[61] The road Jalan U-Thant (U-Thant Road) and the townshipTaman U-Thant inKuala Lumpur,Malaysia are also named in his honor.[62]
In October 2013, the building of an U Thant library near hisPantanaw house halted for lack of funds.[63] In December 2013, under an effort spearheaded by his daughter Aye Aye Thant and his grandson Thant Myint-U, Thant's house in Yangon was being converted into a museum which would feature his photos, works and personal belongings.[64]
^U is anhonorific inBurmese, roughly equal to "Mister".Thant was his only name, per Burmese convention. In Burmese, he was known asPantanaw U Thant, in reference to his hometown, Pantanaw.
^A total of 3,683 days, taking into account a one-month vacancy in November–December 1966.[1]
^Franda, Marcus F. (2006).The United Nations in the 21st century: management and reform processes in a troubled organization. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 53.ISBN978-0-7425-5334-7.
^Lundestad, Geir."The Nobel Peace Prize, 1901–2000".nobelprize.org.Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved7 April 2018.In 1965 and 1966 a majority of the committee clearly favoured giving the prize to the third Secretary General, U Thant, and even to the first, Norway's Trygve Lie, but chairman Jahn more or less vetoed this.
^McCann, Eamonn (23 January 2014)."How did the Holy See get recognition as a state? It just did".The Irish Times.Archived from the original on 30 November 2020. Retrieved7 April 2018.In March 1964 pope Paul VI wrote to UN secretary general U Thant saying he was minded to appoint a permanent observer. In April, U Thant wrote back saying, in effect, fair enough, come ahead.
^Kissling, F.; Shannon, D. (1996). "Church and state at the United Nations. A case of the emperor's new clothes".Conscience (Washington, D.C.).16 (4):11–2.PMID12178922.
^Middleton, Drew (20 September 1966). "Election of Thant with Wider Role in U.N. Due Today".The New York Times. p. 1.
^Middleton, Drew (3 December 1966). "Thant, Renamed, Vows New Effort to End Asian War".The New York Times. p. 1.
^Rikhye, Indar Jit (1980).The Sinai Blunder: Withdrawal of the United Nations Emergency Force leading to the Six-Day War of June 1967. Routledge.ISBN978-0-7146-3136-3.
^Dunlap, David W."Bronx Residents Fighting Plans Of a Developer"Archived 4 February 2009 at theWayback Machine,The New York Times, 16 November 1987. Accessed 4 May 2008. "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 neighbours 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."
Duncan, Evan M., ed. (2004),United Nations, 1969–1972, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, vol. V, Washington: United States Government Printing Office
Hanwong, L. (2014). ʻŪ than nai thāna lēkhāthikān ʻOngkān Sahaprachāchāt chāo ʻĒchīa khon rǣk [U Thant as the first Asian secretary-general of the United Nations]. In A. Khamson, T. Weerakietsoontorn & C. Khuntong (Eds.),Yō̜n phinit phūsāng prawattisāt ʻĒchīa Tawanʻō̜k Chīang Tai [Reflections on Makers of Southeast Asian History 2] (pp. 131–63). Bangkok: Reviews of Southeast Asian History and Culture Project (TRF). (in Thai)
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