Austrian diplomat and the fourth
Secretary –General of the
United Nations. From
1945 to
1971 he held various diplomatic and political posts in
Austria, including
ambassador to
Canada and the
UN and
foreign minister of Austria.
He became Secretary-General after an unsuccessful run for the presidency of Austria. While Secretary-General of the UN he oversaw
peacekeeping and relief efforts in
Angola,
Bangladesh,
Cyprus,
Guatemala, the
Middle East,
Nicaragua, and
Yemen. He served two terms, from
1972 to
1981, and was not reelected to a third.
In 1986 he was elected to the presidency of Austria. Controversy erupted during the election when new information regarding his activities during
World War II surfaced. Waldheim was conscripted into the German army and served on the
Russian front until he was wounded in
1941. He claimed he spent the rest of the war studying law at the
University of Vienna, but documents were discovered that indicated he served as an officer in a German army unit responsible for atrocities against
partisans in
Yugoslavia and for sending the
Jewish population of
Salonika,
Greece to the
death camps. Waldheim admitted fudging his past, but denied any complicity in those
Nazi crimes.
In
1991, he did not seek another presidential term.
Pope John Paul II was criticized for meeting with him in a
1987 state visit and awarding him a
papal knighthood, the
Ordine Piano, in
1994 despite these allegations.