Word: burma
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...Secretary-General who comes after me," Dag Hammarskjold once said, "will be one of the Afro-Asians." Last week, nearly two months after Hammarskjold's death, the U.N. fulfilled his prophecy. Picked to succeed Dag, after weeks of haggling between Russia and the U.S., was Burma's permanent U.N. delegate, U Thant (rhymes with Du Pont).* His selection came after Russia finally backed away from its insistence on a troika leadership and compromised with the U.S. on the number and authority of assistant secretaries. The U S wanted five, one each from the U.S., Russia, Latin America, Africa...
Round-faced and greying, U Thant wears black-rimmed glasses and elegantly tailored Western suits, usually with an English-style striped tie. He does not drink, but smokes small black cheroots, and is the only official allowed to smoke in the presence of Burma's abstemious Prime Minister U Nu. Still known respectfully as saya (teacher), U Thant has written six books, including a 1933 history of the League of Nations and two recently published volumes in a projected three-volume history of his native country. He speaks fluent English, has an unassuming disposition that has made him exceptionally...
Born in January 1909 at Pantanaw in Burma's fertile Irrawaddy delta, U Thant comes from a cultured, well-to-do family of landowners. Oldest of four brothers, all of whom became prominent in Burmese government and business, he is married to the daughter of an eminent lawyer. They have a 22-year-old daughter, Aye Aye, and a son. Tin Maung ("Tinny"), 19, both taking sociology courses at Manhattan's Hunter College...
...attended Rangoon University, but dropped out in his second year when his father's death left him responsible for supporting his family. He returned to teach English and history at his old high school, at 21 passed his teacher's exams ahead of all other candidates in Burma. At college and later on the staff at Pantanaw, U Thant became a lifelong friend of U Nu; both were prolific spare-time journalists, specializing in spirited anticolonial articles...
...believes staunchly in democratic institutions and has helped achieve them in Burma, which outlawed the Communist Party a few months after achieving independence. But he has supported U.N. membership for Red China, which faces neutral Burma across 1,500 miles of frontier, even while decrying Communism's "violent" tactics. This inconsistency many Burmese are willing to justify in hopes that Red China's acceptance on the world scene may restrain what U Thant regards as the primary source of conflict between nations: "Uncivilized elements in their characters.' Burma's role, he feels, is not to join...