U Thant, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

U Thant

third Secretary-General of the United Nations

Date of Birth: 22-Jan-1909

Place of Birth: Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar

Date of Death: 25-Nov-1974

Profession: writer, politician, diplomat

Nationality: Myanmar

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius


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About U Thant

  • Thant (; Burmese: ????; MLCTS: san.; IPA: [?a??]; 22 January 1909 – 25 November 1974), known honorifically as U Thant (), was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, the first non-European to hold the position.
  • He held the office for a record 10 years and one month (3,683 days) (taking into account a one-month vacancy in November–December 1966).A native of Pantanaw, Thant was educated at the National High School and at the Rangoon 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 Minister U Nu and served various positions in Nu's cabinet from 1948 to 1961.
  • Thant had a calm and unassuming demeanor which won his colleagues' respect.He was appointed as Secretary-General in 1961, when his predecessor Dag Hammarskjöld died in an air crash.
  • In his first term, Thant facilitated negotiations between U.S.
  • President John F.
  • Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, helping to avert a global catastrophe.
  • Later, in December that year, Thant ordered Operation Grandslam, which ended a secessionist insurgency in Congo.
  • 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 American conduct in the Vietnam 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 of lung cancer in 1974.
  • A devout Buddhist 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 broke out in Rangoon; these were violently crushed by the government, leaving scores of casualties.

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