Word: waldheim
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...papal election. After 16 ballots in five weeks, the United Nations Security Council was locked in a stalemate over the selection of a Secretary-General for the five-year term that begins Jan. 1. The People's Republic of China had repeatedly vetoed the incumbent, Kurt Waldheim of Austria, 62, who was vying for an unprecedented third term. Just as consistently, the U.S. had nixed his challenger, Tanzanian Foreign Minister Salim Ahmed Salim, 39. Last week, even though there was no puff of white smoke billowing from the 39-story marble-and-glass tower on New York City...
...turning point came on Dec. 3, when Waldheim withdrew his name. He was apparently acknowledging that no number of ballots could overcome China's stubborn opposition to a man not from the Third World. Salim, opposed by the U.S. for his occasionally strident anti-American rhetoric, followed suit five days later. That left the field open for a stable of dark horses. The first straw poll, conducted behind the closed doors of the Security Council's chambers, gave the necessary minimum of nine votes to Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, 48, a Harvard-educated Iranian citizen...
...Waldheim wanted to become the first Secretary-General to hold the job for three consecutive terms. His re-election has been opposed by China and other developing countries that want a Third World representative to hold the job. The possibility of Salim's election is opposed by the U.S., which has vetoed him five times when he too attained the nine votes necessary for the job. (Council members could, and did, vote for both candidates.) The U.S. position, put by Ambassador to the U.N. Jeane Kirkpatrick, is that any Secretary-General "who would further politicize [the organization] would mean...
...presidential primary system. Sixteen times in the course of five weeks, the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council had cast their votes for U.N. Secretary-General. Just as many times, the necessary nine countries had voted to re-elect the urbane Austrian incumbent, Kurt Waldheim, 62, who has held the job for two five-year terms. And on each occasion, the People's Republic of China had blocked a Waldheim victory by exercising to veto power. Finally Waldheim appeared to give in. In a letter last week to the December Security Council President Olara Otunnu of Uganda...
...Security Council remains stymied, it was intimated that Waldheim would assent to an extension of his term, possibly for a year or two, as a kind of compromise. Technically, there is little time left on the U.N. calendar for that or any other sort of arrangement, since the General Assembly, which must ratify the choice, is scheduled to adjourn on Dec. 15. But delegates can still decide to cut into their Christmas holidays and extend the session. In that event, it appears likely that one of the body's most important decisions in years will be made in typical...