How to Pronounce U Thant
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Jan 22, 1909 Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar Died on 25 Nov 1974 (aged 65)
third Secretary-General of the United Nations
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U Thant, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Family, Facts, Age, Net Worth, Biography and More in FamedBorn.com
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.
