U Thant

Burmese diplomat

• Born: January 22, 1909
• Birthplace: Pantanaw, Burma (now Myanmar)
• Died: November 25, 1974
• Place of death: New York, New York

Thant took over as acting secretary-general of the United Nations when Dag Hammarskjöld was killed in an airplane crash in 1961 and served until 1971. Thant therefore was the speaker for the United Nations during the many crises of the 1960’s and early 1970’s, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the crisis in the Congo and other parts of Africa, and the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, providing the United Nations with a strong neutral voice.

Early Life

U Thant (ew thahnt), the first of four sons, was born in the town of Pantanaw, Burma, which was then part of the British Indian Empire. The “U” in Thant’s name is an honorific, and most Burmese do not use surnames. His home province is probably best known for the difficult traveling conditions within the area, for the many streams forming a delta in the almost totally flat area flood easily. Thant’s family was one of the moderately wealthy ones in the town, since his paternal grandfather and great uncle were the owners of a prosperous rice mill and his maternal grandfather exported woven mats. The real wealth was held by other family members, however, rather than by Thant’s father.

Thant’s father had, however, been educated in Calcutta and is believed to have been the only person in town then able to read and speak English. He passed on his love of learning, as well as his knowledge of English, to his eldest son, and Thant started at the regional school at age six. At the age of fifteen, Thant impressed his family by having an article printed in the Burmese boy scout magazine Burma Scout, and he hoped to turn that small start into a career as a journalist.

Thant’s father died in 1923, and much of the family’s wealth was spent on a legal dispute between various members of the extended family. Thant therefore decided that he would be unable to spend the four years at the University of Rangoon he had planned on. Instead, he would stay two years and get a teaching certificate, which he did from 1926 to 1928. He returned to his hometown and taught in the high school, rising to the headmastership. He would later marry a distant relative, Thein Tin, in 1934.

In the tense political situation of Burma during the 1930’s (nationalism and anticolonialism were both growing), Thant stood between the extremes of ardent nationalism and those who favored British policy. While this gained enemies for him, it also impressed a former university friend and short-term colleague at the Pantanaw High School. U Nu would always remember his friend when an intelligent moderate outlook was needed. As Nu rose through the ranks of the Burmese Nationalists, finally becoming prime minister of independent Burma in 1948, his need for Thant’s opinions grew as well.

During the 1930’s, Thant’s influence grew within education circles as he became involved in various national committees. He also became a moderately well-known individual, as he started having articles published outside education journals. When the crisis of the Japanese invasion came in 1941, Thant was a respected, although not a very important, leader in Burmese society.

Life’s Work

The Burmese found themselves between Japanese and British imperialism during World War II. While a few still favored the British and some believed the Japanese propaganda of “Asia for the Asiatics,” most Burmese nationalists joined or supported the Burmese Independence Army, led by one of Thant’s former pupils, Aung San. Although it primarily fought against the British in 1942, a reorganized version would be instrumental in fighting the Japanese as well. In 1942, Thant left Pantanaw to help reorganize Burmese education under the Japanese occupation at the suggestion of San and Nu. This work, although ignored at the time, allowed the other leading nationalists to take a good look at the educator/journalist, even though Thant returned home after a few months’ work.

When the British Indian Empire was dissolved in 1947, Burma was scheduled to become an independent nation. Thant moved his family to Rangoon, hoping to set up an independent magazine that would give the new nation a native literary forum. Instead, Thant first became press director of the nationalistic Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPF) and then held the same position in the Directorate of Information. During the next few troubled years, Thant became in turn the deputy to the information secretary, director of broadcasting, and then secretary of the information ministry and chair of the Burma film board. At the same time, he drew closer to his old friend Nu: accompanying him on a goodwill mission to India in 1950; leading missions to Indonesia, Thailand, and Great Britain in 1951; and then leading the Burmese mission to the United Nations in 1952. Returning in 1953, Thant became secretary of projects, secretary to the prime minister, and then secretary of the economic and social board. Finally, in 1957, he was sent to the United Nations as Burma’s permanent representative, where he quickly made a reputation as a hardworking and impartial member of the General Assembly as well as for working in many of the committees and behind the scenes.

In September, 1961, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, was killed in an airplane crash in Central Africa. The United States and the Soviet Union were unable to agree on any candidate put up by the other members of the Security Council, the Soviets going so far as to propose splitting the top position into three positions: one communist, one from the West, and one from the developing world, with each one having a veto. Over the next few weeks, the United Nations saw one of its greatest periods of political negotiation, as representatives from the smaller nations tried to mediate between the two superpowers and at the same time find somebody acceptable to the majority of the U.N. member nations.

Thant was one of the hardest workers in this process. Because of this, as well as all of his previous hard work, representatives started talking about having Thant fill out Hammarskjöld’s term of office. Although there were some objections, based on a number of political reasons, few people had any personal objections to Thant. When the United States decided to back Thant as well, the Soviets joined in, and Thant was unanimously elected acting secretary-general of the United Nations in November, 1961. He was reelected in 1962 and 1966, serving until December 31, 1971.

Thant faced a number of problems during his tenure as secretary-general. Decolonization was at its height during the early 1960’s, and there were a number of violent and disruptive problems, both internal and external, associated with the process, particularly in the Congo, the area to which Hammarskjöld was on his way when his plane crashed. It was up to the secretary-general to keep as many of the disputants talking as possible.

Despite his many successes, such as helping to keep the United States and the Soviet Union talking during the Cuban Missile Crisis , Thant was not always seen in a favorable light by many of the world’s national leaders. He was publicly critical of U.S. military policy in Vietnam, and he was also privately opposed to the U.S. armed intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965. The American press responded with criticism of the secretary-general. Thant was also opposed to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, although as usual he kept his criticism private. Still, it was enough to upset the Soviets.

At all times, Thant was a defender of peace, trying to get various disputants to agree to arbitration of their problems. Quite often, however, at least one of those involved would refuse, gaining the secretary-general criticism for not actively taking the “correct” side. Besides international disputes, Thant’s tenure also saw the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, fighting between Pakistan and India over two different border areas and then the start of the war that resulted in the birth of Bangladesh, and numerous other, internal and smaller international disputes. Unable to serve as more than either an impartial adviser or uninvited observer despite the many demands that he take sides in controversial situations, Thant managed in general to maintain his position despite his critics and many temptations.

After his retirement, Thant was appointed senior fellow of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs. He spent the last years of his life writing and speaking on the general themes he had tried to promote while he was secretary-general. He believed in the development of a true global community, which would mean not only the ending of armed conflict but also a true sharing of resources and technology as well.

Thant died of cancer in November, 1974. His body was returned to Rangoon for burial. A group of students seized the body on December 5, to bury it on the grounds of the university. When the police took the body back on December 11, it sparked days of riots.

Significance

While Thant contributed to maintaining the precarious balance of peace during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and much of the public portion of the confrontation was played out at the United Nations, he also helped turn the United Nations from what had been primarily a forum for the East/West Cold War conflict into an arena where the emerging less developed nations could express themselves on the world stage. His strong Buddhist beliefs, along with his own moral character, helped him defend his position as a leader of the global community, rather than a mere national figure speaking in an international setting. It was Thant’s hope that the United Nations would continue to grow into that sort of an organization, a place in which the world would come together, rather than a forum to air disputes.

Bibliography

The Asia Society. Asia Peacemaker from Pantanaw. New York: The Asia Society, 1977. A memorial tribute to Thant, this supplement to the journal Asia contains several articles assessing the historical importance of Thant to the history of Burma, the United Nations, and the world.

Bingham, June. U Thant: The Search for Peace. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966. An extremely good biography of the U.N. leader, concentrating on his pre-United Nations life. Bingham had the benefit of a number of interviews with Thant, which gives this work extra importance. It also includes a chronology and a reprint of a pre-World War II article that Thant wrote on the Burmese.

Butwell, Richard. U Nu of Burma. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1963. An in-depth study and biography of the main Burmese political leader during the 1940’s through the early 1960’s. Nu was a longtime friend and patron of Thant, and this work describes the effort made to establish an independent Burma and the home political situation with which Thant had to deal while he was Burma’s representative at the United Nations.

Cordier, Andrew, and Max Harrelson, eds. Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations. Vols. 6, 7, and 8. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976. These U.N. documents include not only official reports and speeches but also some of the behind-the-scenes memos and letters that formed Thant’s positions, transcripts of press conferences, and public speeches during his tenure as secretary-general.

Firestone, Bernard J. The United Nations Under U Thant, 1961-1971. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2001. Chronicles the events that occurred during Thant’s tenure as secretary-general of the United Nations. An advocate for developing nations, Thant was secretary-general during a period in which the United Nations increasingly focused on issues of colonialism, neoimperialism, and the unequal distribution of the world’s wealth.

Johnstone, William C. Burma’s Foreign Policy: A Study in Neutralism. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963. This work describes the political background that Thant brought with him to the United Nations and the neutralist policies that he espoused while he was working at the United Nations during the 1950’s and early 1960’s, which led to his being chosen secretary-general.

Meisler, Stanley. United Nations: The First Fifty Years. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995. A concise history of the first fifty years of the United Nations.

Nu, U. U Nu, Saturday’s Son: Memoirs of the Former Prime Minister of Burma. Translated by Edward M. Law Yone. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1975. Modern Burmese history as seen through the eyes of one of its nationalistic founders.

Thant, U. Toward World Peace. Edited by Jacob Baal Teshuva. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1964. This is a compilation of Thant’s speeches and other public statements between 1957 and 1963.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. View from the U.N. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1978. Thant’s memoirs of his tenure as secretary-general of the United Nations, dealing in detail with the major crises of his tenure in office.