U Thant

Thant (January 22, 1909 - November 25, 1974), also known as U Thant, was the third Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, and the first non-Scandinavian to hold the position. He served as President for a record 10 years and one month.

Thant, a Pantanaw native, attended National High School and Rangoon University. He held moderate views in a tense political climate in Burma, positioning himself between fervent nationalists and British loyalists. He was a close friend of Burma's first Prime Minister, U Nu, and served in Nu's cabinet in various capacities from 1948 to 1961. Thant had a calm and unassuming demeanor that earned him the respect of his colleagues.

He became Secretary-General six weeks after his predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, died in an air crash. Thant facilitated negotiations between the United States and China during his first term. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev helped to avert a global catastrophe during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Later that year, in December, Thant launched Operation Grandslam, which put an end to a secessionist insurgency in Congo. On December 2, 1966, the Security Council unanimously reappointed him as Secretary-General. Thant was well-known during his second term for publicly criticizing the United States' conduct in the Vietnam War. He oversaw the admission of several newly independent African and Asian states to the United Nations. He declined a third term and retired in 1971.

Thant died in 1974 of lung cancer. He was widely admired and respected by the Burmese people as a devout Buddhist and the foremost Burmese diplomat on the international stage. When the military government refused him any honors, riots erupted in Rangoon, which were violently suppressed by the government, resulting in hundreds of casualties.