Word: thant
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Waldheim's election was the result of the nuanced realities of big-power politics. The U.S. plainly preferred Finland's energetic Max Jakobson, a former journalist and amateur historian who could give the U.N. the leadership that it lacked under the mercurial, vacillating U Thant. But Jakobson's strong qualities made him unacceptable to the Soviets who "know from experience what a tough Finn is like, and didn't want him," as a State Department official put it last week. The Soviets first tried unsuccessfully to persuade U Thant, who is suffering from a bleeding ulcer...
Washington expects a smooth, easy relationship with Waldheim, a welcome change from its sometimes stormy quarrels with U Thant. "I am happy that I am not an intellectual ball of fire," Waldheim said last week. "I don't think you can solve the U.N.'s problems that way. What the U.N. needs is a quiet approach." Taking over at a time when the U.N. is in deep financial trouble (total debt: $210 million), the new Secretary-General last week said that he planned to tackle that problem first. He also hinted that there would be drastic changes...
C.N.A.'s Tang Teh-cheh, 62, had held U.N. accreditation since its founding in 1945, and Lin Chen-chi, 54, arrived nine years later. Under a directive personally approved by Secretary-General U Thant, both were told without warning a fortnight ago to turn in their press passes. They had to be excluded, Thant decided, because C.N.A. was a "government agency," and the government of Taiwan had been expelled from the U.N. and many of its affiliated organizations. The rationale was plainly political and discriminatory. The East German news agency is also government controlled, and its correspondents are allowed...
Power Politics. Thant's order came shortly after he had hosted a luncheon for Peking's U.N. delegation. Somewhere between the smoked fish and the star-shaped scallion pancakes he was evidently persuaded to bar the C.N.A. correspondents so that Yeh Chih-hsiung of Peking's official Hsinhua agency could cover the U.N. with a clear conscience. Peking does not want its reporters taking part in organizations that allow Taiwanese participation. In Ottawa, Hsinhua has refused to join the Parliamentary Press Gallery because its members will not expel the C.N.A...
...Tang also enjoy their colleagues' support, but so far it has done them little good. "This is naked power politics," said Tang. "The Communists brought pressure on Thant, who is Burmese. The Burmese have a saying that when China sneezes they fear a flood. Thant is retiring with a fat pension, and this is his final favor for Burma and Red China...