Country: Austria

Tenure: 1972-1981

Biography: http://www.un.org/News/ossg/sg/stories/waldheim_bio.asp

Past Positions:

• President of Austria (1986-1992)
• Austrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, a post he held until he was appointed Secretary-General (October 1970)
• Chairman of the Safeguards Committee of the International Atomic Energy Agency
• Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Austria (January 1968-April 1970)
• President of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (elected 1968)
• Chairman of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (1964-1968)
• Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations (1964 to 1968)
• Director-General for Political Affairs until June 1964
• Head of the Political Department (West) in the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (1960-1962)
• Austrian representative to Canada, first as Minister Plenipotentiary and later as Ambassador (1956-1960)
• Permanent Observer for Austria to the United Nations (1955)
• Became head of the Austrian Mission when Austria was admitted to the UN (1955)
• Head of the personnel department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Vienna (1951-1955)
• First Secretary of the Legation in Paris (1948-1951)
• Joined the Austrian diplomatic service (1945)
• Served as a German military officer during WWII

Education:

• J.D., University of Vienna, (1944)
• Graduate of the Vienna Consular Academy

General Information:

• 1987 Kurt Waldheim, was placed on the Justice Department’s ‘’watch list'’ of people suspected of involvement in war crimes
• During his first three years as Secretary-General he made it a practice to visit areas of special concern to the United Nations including South Africa, Namibia, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, and Jordan
• December 1973 he presided over the first phase of the Geneva Peace Conference on the Middle East
• Author of , The Austrian Example, a work on Austria’s foreign policy (published 1973)