U Thant

Thant as a Rangoon University student in 1927

Thant, the eldest of four sons, was born in Pantanaw, Colonial Burma, to a moderately-wealthy family of landowners and rice merchants. His father Po Hnit, who had been educated in Calcutta, was the only person in the town who could communicate well in English.[3] He was a founding member of the Burma Research Society and had helped establish The Sun (Thuriya) newspaper in Rangoon. [3][4] Although his family members were ethnic Bamars and devout Buddhists, Thant's father, according to Thant Myint-U (U Thant's grandson), had distant ancestors who were "people from both India and China, Buddhists and Muslims, as well as Shans and Mons".[5] He hoped that all his four sons would each earn a degree.[6] His other sons, Khant, Thaung, and Tin Maung went on to become politicians and scholars.[4]

Po Hnit had collected a personal library of various American and British books and cultivated a reading habit among his children. As a result, Thant became an avid reader and his school friends nicknamed him "The Philosopher".[7] Apart from reading, he enjoyed various sports including hiking, swimming and playing chinlone.[8] He went to the National High School in Pantanaw. At the age of eleven Thant participated in strikes against the University Act of 1920. He dreamed of becoming a journalist and surprised the family by writing an article for the Union of Burma Boy Scouts magazine. When Thant was fourteen, his father died and a series of inheritance disputes forced Thant's mother, Nan Thaung, and her four children into difficult financial times.[9]

After the death of his father, Thant believed he would not be able to complete a four-year degree and instead worked for a two-year teaching certificate at Rangoon University in 1926. As the eldest son he had to fulfill his filial duties and responsibilities to the family. At university, Thant, together with Nu, the future Prime Minister of Burma, studied history under D. G. E. Hall. Nu was told by a distant mutual relative to take care of Thant and the two soon became close friends.[10] Thant was elected joint secretary of the University Philosophical Association and secretary of the Literary and Debating Society.[11] In Rangoon, Thant met J.S. Furnivall, the founder of The Burma Book Club and The World of Books magazine, to which Thant regularly contributed. Promising a good post, Furnivall urged Thant to complete a four-year university course and join the Civil Service, but Thant refused.[12] After earning the certificate, he returned to Pantanaw to teach at the National High School as a senior teacher in 1928. He contacted Furnivall and Nu regularly, writing articles and participating in The World of Books translation competitions.[13]

In 1931, Thant won first place in All Burma Teachership Examination and became the school's headmaster by the age of twenty-five.[14][15] Urged by Thant, his friend Nu took the local superintendent of schools position. Thant regularly contributed to several newspapers and magazines under the pen name "Thilawa" and translated a number of books, including one on the League of Nations.[16] His major influences were Sir Stafford Cripps, Sun Yat-sen and Mahatma Gandhi.[7] In the days of tense political climate in Burma, Thant stood moderate grounds between fervent nationalists and British loyalists.[15]

Thant with U Nu in 1955 on an early morning walk

During World War II, the Japanese occupied Burma from 1942 to 1945. They brought Thant to Rangoon to lead the Educational Reorganizing Committee. However, Thant did not have any real power, and returned to Pantanaw. When teaching the Japanese language was made compulsory in Pantanaw high schools, Thant defied the orders and cooperated with the growing anti-Japanese resistance.[17]

In 1948, Burma gained independence from the United Kingdom. Nu became the prime minister of the newly independent Burma and appointed Thant as director of broadcasting in 1948. By then, civil war had broken out. The Karen insurgency began and Thant risked his life to go to Karen camps to negotiate for peace. The negotiations broke down, and in 1949 the advancing insurgents burned his hometown, including his house. The insurgents pushed the front to within four miles of the capital Rangoon before they were beaten back. In the following year, Thant was appointed secretary to the government of Burma in the Ministry of Information. From 1951 to 1957, Thant was secretary to the prime minister, writing speeches for U Nu, arranging his foreign travel, and meeting foreign visitors. During this entire period, he was U Nu's closest confidant and advisor.[17]

He also took part in a number of international conferences and was the secretary of the 1955 Bandung Conference in Indonesia, which gave birth to the Non-Aligned Movement. From 1957 to 1961, he was Burma's permanent representative to the United Nations and became actively involved in negotiations over Algerian independence. In 1961, Thant was named Chairman of the UN Congo Commission. The Burmese government awarded him the title Maha Thray Sithu as a commander in the order of Pyidaungsu Sithu.[18]

Thant swearing in to the United Nations Secretariat

In September 1961, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash en route to Congo. Within two weeks, the United States and the Soviet Union had agreed to appoint Thant as the Acting Secretary-General for the remainder of Hammarskjöld's term. However, the two superpowers spent another four weeks arguing over the details of his appointment. On 3 November 1961, the Security Council recommended Thant in Resolution 168, and the General Assembly voted unanimously to appoint Thant to a term of office ending on 10 April 1963.[19]

During his first term, he was widely credited for his role in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis and for ending the civil war in the Congo. He also said that he wanted to ease tensions between major powers while serving at the UN.[20]

First term: Cuban Missile Crisis

At a critical moment—when the nuclear powers seemed set on a collision course—the Secretary-General's intervention led to the diversion of the Soviet ships headed for Cuba and interception by our Navy. This was the indispensable first step in the peaceful resolution of the Cuban crisis.

—Adlai Stevenson, Senate Foreign Relations Committee 88th Congress, 13 March 1963[21]

Thant shakes hands with John F. Kennedy during his visit to the UN Headquarters.

In less than one year in office, Thant faced a critical challenge to defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis, the moment when the world came closest to a nuclear war. On 20 October 1962, two days before public announcements were made, U.S. President John F. Kennedy showed Thant U-2 aerial reconnaissance photographs of Soviet missile installations in Cuba. The president then ordered a naval "quarantine" to remove all offensive weapons from Soviet ships bound for Cuba. Meanwhile, Soviet ships were approaching the quarantine zone. To avoid a naval confrontation, Thant proposed that the U.S. should make non-invasion guarantees in exchange for missile withdrawal from the Soviet Union. Soviet Premier Khrushchev welcomed the proposal, which formed the basis of further negotiations.[22] Khrushchev further agreed to suspend missile shipments while the negotiations were ongoing.[23] However, on 27 October 1962, a U-2 plane was shot down over Cuba, deepening the crisis. Kennedy was under intense pressure to invade from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Executive Committee (ExComm). Kennedy hoped Thant would play the role of mediator and subsequently replied to ExComm and the Joint Chiefs, "On the other hand we have U Thant, and we don't want to sink a ship...right in the middle of when U Thant is supposedly arranging for the Russians to stay out."[24]

Negotiations continued. The U.S. agreed to dismantle missiles in Turkey and guaranteed never to invade Cuba in exchange for removal of Soviet missiles in Cuba. Thant flew to Cuba and discussed with Fidel Castro allowing UN missile inspectors and the return of the body of the downed U-2 pilot. Castro, furious that the Soviets had agreed to remove missiles without his knowledge, categorically rejected any UN inspectors, although he did return the pilot's body. The inspection was done at sea by US reconnaissance aircraft and warships. The crisis was resolved and a war between superpowers was averted.[15][25]

Second term: Arab–Israeli conflict and Vietnam War

Egypt President Gamal Abdel Nasser meets Thant in Koubbeh Palace, 1967

After the Six-Day War, [Thant] allowed himself to become a convenient scapegoat for international inaction, accepting this unenviable role with as much Buddhist detachment as could be summoned.

—Walter Dorn, 2007[34]

Thant announced in 1966 that he would not stand for a second term,[28] but he accepted a draft when the Security Council assured him that he would not be a "glorified clerk."[35] On December 2, 1966, the General Assembly re-appointed Thant to a term ending on December 31, 1971, on the unanimous recommendation of the Security Council.[36] During his second term, he oversaw the entry into the UN of dozens of new Asian and African states, and was a firm opponent of apartheid in South Africa. He also established many of the UN's development and environmental agencies, funds and programmes, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN University, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and the UN Environmental Programme. The Six-Day War between Arab countries and Israel, the Prague Spring and subsequent Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the Indo–Pakistani War of 1971 leading to the birth of Bangladesh all took place during his tenure as secretary-general.[15]

Thant meets with U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Cabinet Room of the White House on February 21, 1968.

He was criticized in the US and Israel for agreeing to pull UNEF troops out of the Sinai in 1967 in response to a request from Egyptian president Nasser.[37] The Permanent Representative of Egypt had informed Thant that the Egyptian government had decided to terminate UNEF's presence in the Sinai and the Gaza Strip, and requested steps that would withdraw the force as soon as possible, which Thant was obligated to accept. The UN afterwards stated, "Because Israel refused to accept UNEF on its territory, the Force had to be deployed only on the Egyptian side of the border, and thus its functioning was entirely contingent upon the consent of Egypt as the host country. Once that consent was withdrawn, its operation could no longer be maintained."[38] Thant, by flying to Cairo in a last-minute peace effort, tried to persuade Nasser not to go to war with Israel.

In Israel, his abrupt unilateral withdrawal of UNEF without any diplomatic process or wider consultation was regarded as a violation of United Nations assurances and commitments given to Israel in 1957, on the basis of which Israel had withdrawn from Sinai and Gaza at that time,[39] and it "thereafter inspired Israel's refusal to place her vital interests again in United Nations hands".[40]

Thant's once good relationship with the US government deteriorated rapidly when he publicly criticized American conduct of the Vietnam War.[41] His secret attempts at direct peace talks between Washington and Hanoi were eventually rejected by the Johnson Administration.

In 1971, the participation of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations, which was a long-standing problem, was realized. Thant sent a message to the Chinese government asking China to send a delegation.[42]

Thant died of lung cancer at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York on 25 November 1974.[44] By then, Burma was ruled by a military junta, which refused him any honours. Burmese President Ne Win was envious of Thant's international stature and the respect that was accorded him by the Burmese populace. Ne Win also resented Thant's close links with the democratic government of U Nu, whom Win had overthrown in 1962.

However, Thant's grandson, Thant Myint-U, wrote in the book The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma that intense animosity between Thant and Ne Win went back only to 1969, when Ne Win believed Thant was conniving with Nu after Nu denounced Ne Win at a press corps meeting at the UN headquarters. Ne Win told his men to consider Thant as an enemy of the state, despite Thant denouncing Nu's action as inappropriate.[49]

Regardless of the reasons, Ne Win ordered for Thant to be buried without any official involvement or ceremony.

Thant's tomb, Shwedagon Pagoda Road, Rangoon

From the United Nations headquarters in New York where he was laid in state, Thant's body was flown back to Rangoon, but no guard of honour or high-ranking officials were on hand at the airport when the coffin arrived except for U Aung Tun, deputy minister of education, who was subsequently dismissed from office.[50] On the day of Thant's funeral on 5 December 1974, tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Rangoon to pay their last respects. Thant's coffin was displayed at Rangoon's Kyaikasan race course for a few hours before the scheduled burial. The coffin of Thant was then snatched by a group of students just before it was scheduled to leave for burial in an ordinary Rangoon cemetery. The student demonstrators buried Thant on the former grounds of the Rangoon University Students Union (RUSU), which Ne Win had dynamited and destroyed on 8 July 1962.[51]

During the period of 5-11 December, the student demonstrators also built a temporary mausoleum for Thant on the grounds of the RUSU and gave anti-government speeches. In early morning on 12 December 1974, government troops stormed the campus, killed some of the students guarding the makeshift mausoleum, removed Thant's coffin, and reburied it in Kandawmin Garden Mausolea near the Shwedagon Pagoda, where it has continued to lie.[52] Upon hearing of the storming of the Rangoon University campus and the forcible removal of Thant's coffin, many people rioted in the streets of Rangoon. Martial law was declared in Rangoon and the surrounding metropolitan areas. What has come to be known as the U Thant crisis, the student-led protests over the shabby treatment of Thant by the Ne Win government, as crushed by the Burmese government.[52]

Thant's memoirs, View from the UN, were posthumously published, initially by Doubleday in 1978.

In April 2012, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid his respects at U Thant's mausoleum during a visit to Yangon.

U Thant is held in esteem in Malaysia, as he helped to endorse the formation of the country in 1963. Among others, a road in Kuala Lumpur and the residential estate of Taman U-Thant are named after him.

Thant and his family, including brothers Khant Thaung and Tin Maung, his mother Nan Thaung, and his daughter Aye Aye Thant and her husband, Tin Myint-U, in 1964

Thant had three brothers: Khant, Thaung, and Tin Maung.[53] He was married to Daw Thein Tin. They had two sons, but lost both; Maung Bo died in infancy, and Tin Maung Thant fell from a bus during a visit to Yangon. Tin Maung Thant's funeral procession, which was attended by dignitaries, was grander than that of the state funeral of Commodore Than Pe, a member of the 17-man Revolutionary Council and minister of health and education. Thant was survived by a daughter, an adopted son, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren (three girls and two boys). His only grandson, Thant Myint-U, is a historian and a former senior official in the UN's Department of Political Affairs and the author of The River of Lost Footsteps, in part a biography of Thant.

Thant was generally reluctant to receive prizes and honors due to his own humility as well as publicity associated with them. He declined Burma's second highest honor awarded to him by U Nu's government in 1961. When he was informed that the 1965 Nobel Prize would instead go to UNICEF due to Chairman Gunnar Jahn's veto, Thant, according to Walter Dorn, "recorded his pleasure".[2] However, he did accept the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1965[54] and the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 1973.[55]

Thant received honorary degrees (LL.D) from Carleton University, Williams College, Princeton University, Mount Holyoke College, Harvard University, Dartmouth College, University of California at Berkeley, University of Denver, Swarthmore College, New York University, Moscow University, Queen's University, Colby College, Yale University, University of Windsor, Hamilton College, Fordham University, Manhattan College, University of Michigan, Delhi University, University of Leeds, Louvain University, University of Alberta, Boston University, Rutgers University, University of Dublin (Trinity College), Laval University, Columbia University, the University of the Philippines Diliman, and Syracuse University. He also received the Doctor of Divinity from The First Universal Church; Doctor of International Law from Florida International University; Doctor of Laws from University of Hartford; Doctor of Civil Laws degree, honoris causa from Colgate University; Doctor of Humane Letters from Duke University.[56]

In his memory, Sri Chinmoy, the leader of the UN Meditation Group founded by Thant, established the U Thant Peace Award which acknowledges and honors individuals or organizations for distinguished accomplishments toward the attainment of world peace. The meditation team also named a tiny island in the East River opposite the headquarters of the United Nations U Thant Island.[57] The road Jalan U-Thant (U-Thant Road) and the township Taman U-Thant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are also named in his honor.[58]

In December 2013, in an effort spearheaded by his daughter Aye Aye Thant and his grandson Thant Myint-U, Thant's house in Yangon was being converted into a museum which would feature his photos, works and personal belongings.[59] In October 2013, the building of an U Thant library near his Pantanaw house was underway.[60]

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• Bernard J. Firestone (2001). The United Nations under U Thant, 1961–1971. Metuchen, N.J: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-3700-3.
• Ramses Nassif (1988). U Thant in New York, 1961–1971: A Portrait of the Third UN Secretary-General. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-02117-7.
• Hanwong, L. (2014). ʻŪ than nai thāna lēkhāthikān ʻOngkān Sahaprachāchāt chāo ʻĒchīa khon rǣk [U Thant as the first Asian secretary-general of the United Nations]. In A. Khamson, T. Weerakietsoontorn & C. Khuntong (Eds.), Yō̜n phinit phūsāng prawattisāt ʻĒchīa Tawanʻō̜k Chīang Tai [Reflections on Makers of Southeast Asian History 2] (pp. 131–63). Bangkok: Reviews of Southeast Asian History and Culture Project (TRF). (in Thai)
• U Thant (1978). View from the UN. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-11541-4.

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• U Thant papers at the United Nations Archives
• Official UNSG biography from the United Nations website
• U Thant House U Thant House