Kurt Waldheim

Austrian President 1986-1992, lawyer and diplomat, who served as the fourth Secretary General of the United Nations 1972-1981. He was educated at the Diplomatic Academy and Vienna University. Drafted into the army in 1939, he worked as a staff officer interpreter in the Balkans. Joining the Austrian consular service in 1945, his first foreign assignment was as first secretary in the Embassy at Paris 1948-1951. He subsequently held high positions in the ministry of foreign affairs in Vienna 1951-1955 and 1960-1964 and served as minister and then ambassador to Canada 1956-1960. Having held the post of Austrian foreign minister 1968-1970, Waldheim then unsuccessfully tried for the People's Party for the Austrian presidency in 1971. Later that year, his long career at the U.N. was climaxed by his election to a five-year term as secretary general. He was elected to a second term in 1976 and an unprecedented third term in 1981 was vetoed by China during 16 rounds of balloting before he withdrew.