Genocide, Ceasefire, Negotiation: The Secretaries-General of the United Nations
This week, I thought I’d start a segment showcasing individual leaders that otherwise might not be worth a full article.
The U.N. Secretary Generals are a perfect place to begin. There have been nine U.N. Secretary-Generals (plus one acting member) since the UN’s founding in 1945.
1- Gladwyn Jebb (England): 1945-1946
Jebb served as an acting Secretary-General from October 24th, 1945, to February 2nd, 1946, until the appointment of his successor, Trygve Lie.
2- Trygve Lie (Norway): 1946-1952
Lie established himself as a prominent diplomat after leading the Norwegian delegation during the 1945 establishment of the U.N. in San Francisco. He was later elected Secretary-General during the term of Gladwyn Jebb as a compromise between major powers.
Lie was known as a smart, prudent politician, and was a highly competent Secretary-General, dispatching peacekeeping missions to the Middle East and helping aid in the foundation of Indonesia in the wake of Japanese imperial rule. Despite his successes, many criticize him for failing to bring about a swifter end to the Korean War, or leaving the Berlin Blockade largely unresolved. Other skeptics suggest that he allowed himself to be influenced by too many of his subordinates, a problem which plagued many of his successors.
3- Dag Hammarskjold (Sweden): 1953-1961
Hammarskjold still stands as the youngest holder of the position, only 47 years old upon his 1953 appointment. Funnily enough, he believed he was too young to hold the position. Hammarskjold had to be informed three times that he’d been elected, thinking any announcements he’d heard were an April Fool’s Day joke. A deeply spiritual man (he wrote a book, Markings, a collection of his daily thoughts), Hammarskjold’s tenure came at a time of immense international strife. Hammarskjold was confronted by the Suez Crisis and the Congo Crisis during his tenure. Hammarskjold posthumously received the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize for his work, and remains today the benchmark upon which the rest of the U.N. Secretary-Generals are judged. John F. Kennedy labeled Hammarskjold “the greatest statesman of our century.”
While en route to the breakaway state of Katanga to negotiate, Hammarskjold’s DC-6 aircraft crashed, killing all on board. Many Western powers suspected (even to this day) the Soviet Union as potential killers.
4- U Thant (Burma): Acting 1961-1962, 1962-1971
No line of succession was in place following Hammarskjold’s death, and the Burmese U Thant was nominated to serve the rest of Hammarskjold’s term. Thant’s views were initially opposed by the French, since he chaired a committee on Algerian Independence. Myanmar’s pro-Israeli stance was also disliked by Arab countries. Despite his controversial opinions, Thant worked with John F. Kennedy and Nikita Krushchev in resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis during his term, surely averting a global catastrophe. Additionally, Thant oversaw Operation Grand Slam, which put an effective end to the Congo Crisis. Thant died of lung cancer after a long and successful career in 1974. Riots broke out in Myanmar when Burmese authorities refused Thant any funeral services (Then-leader Ne Win was jealous of his high esteem among the Burmese and international communities). Ultimately, Thant is remembered as one of the few statesmen capable of following Hammarskjold’s successes, with President John F. Kennedy remarking that “U Thant has put the world deeply in his debt.”
5- Kurt Waldheim (Austria): 1972-1981
While in office, Waldheim dealt with Israel and Uganda on multiple occasions. During the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1976 Munich Olympics, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin telegraphed Waldheim, praising the Palestinian terrorists responsible for the carnage. Later, Waldheim again had to condemn Amin’s actions after he allowed a hijacked plane full of Israeli citizens to land in the Ugandan Entebbe Airport. The Israeli military apprehended the hostages during Operation Thunderbolt. The fighting in and around the airport notably killed Yonatan Netanyahu, the brother of the current Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin.
After Waldheim’s time in office, he became embroiled in a scandal surrounding his past. An Austrian citizen, Waldheim was revealed to have served with the Nazi Wehrmacht during World War Two. After much strife, including repeated accusations and even a false tell-all written on the subject, it was revealed that although Waldheim did not know (nor could he have done anything about) about Nazi war crimes, he did lie about his military service, and in fact served in the Wehrmacht.
6- Javier Pérez de Cuellar (Peru): 1982-1991
Peréz de Cuellar is among the most easily forgotten United Nations Secretary-Generals, but that, as I’m sure it is now clear, is not necessarily a bad thing. Compared to the atrocities his predecessors (and, most evidently, his successors) had to deal with, Peréz de Cuellar is not forgotten because of his unremarkable diplomatic skills, but for the relatively peaceful world climate during his time in office.
Like his colleagues, though, Peréz de Cuellar dealt with his fair share of incidents during his tenure. Peréz de Cuellar most notably helped facilitate peace talks between the United Kingdom and Argentina in the wake of The Falklands War. In Africa, Peréz de Cuellar mediated the conflict of Western Sahara between Morocco and the Polisario Rebels. In the Balkans, Peréz de Cuellar tried to mediate talks between Serbs and Croats during the Croatian War of Independence. Additionally, Peréz de Cuellar had to deal with the Rainbow Warrior Incident, the French sinking of a Greenpeace vessel in waters off of New Zealand. Peréz de Cuellar later led an unsuccessful presidential bid against infamous Peruvian leader Alberto Fujimori.
7- Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt): 1992-1996
Boutros-Ghali got his start in diplomacy while serving as Foreign Minister under Egyptian dictator Anwar Sadat. Boutros-Ghali quickly became involved on the world stage, sitting in the signing room with Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin during the Camp David Accords, attending the 1979 Council of Europe in Strasbourg, or, ironically enough, approving a secret $26 Million arms deal to the Hutu regime in Rwanda during their rather public pre-genocide stockpile of weapons. It is only fitting, after all, that Boutros-Ghali would then have to deal with the destruction wrought by the arms he sold.
Boutros-Ghali’s term in office was short; that was for good reason. He utterly failed to adequately intervene in the horrific 1994 Rwandan Genocide, and did not allow U.N. peacekeeping units to raid Hutu weapon caches, saying that such an action would overstep their bounds. It would ultimately be a French-led force that would restore order to Rwanda, but Boutros-Ghali, the painstakingly languid peacekeeper that he was, could have easily done more to stop the genocide before the French had to intervene.
As if his term couldn’t get any worse, his failure during the Rwandan Genocide came only a matter of months before he was unable to successfully intervene in Croatia during its war of independence, forcing a NATO operation. Additionally, Boutros-Ghali had failed to restore peace to Somalia during its violent civil war, leading to the hegemony of Mohammed Farah Adid, the Battle of Mogadishu, and an American peacekeeping mission during Operation Restore Hope. Boutros-Ghali was denied a second term, becoming the only U.N. Secretary-General to have been vetoed out of office so far.
8- Kofi Annan (Ghana): 1997-2006
The second African on our list, Annan’s work largely dealt with combatting the HIV/AIDS crisis in his home continent. Additionally, Annan helped reform the bureaucracy of the U.N. through establishing the post of Deputy Secretary-General, increasing the size of the Security Council, or reducing administrative costs. Annan knew that he held a position of incalculably immense power, and that he should have more discourse with advisors and representatives than his predecessors. Annan promulgated the United Nations Global Compact, calling on companies to begin adopting sustainable goals, and he also oversaw and end to the Iraq War. Annan instituted the eventually scandalous Oil-for-Food Program, where Iraq could trade their natural resources for medicines, food, and other aid. It was learned that Benon Sevan, an Armenian nationalist appointed by Annan to head the program, had mismanaged funds and allowed Saddam Hussein to amass over $11 Billion worth of arms and vehicles, despite U.N. sanctions against his regime. Annan today is remembered as a fairly competent Secretary-General, though he is often lambasted for a few scandals during his career.
9- Ban Ki-moon (South Korea): 2007-2016
Like Annan before him, Ban took an increasingly staunch stance on global warming. One of the first major politicians to endorse Alexandra-Ocasio Cortez’ Green New Deal, Ban understood the imminent threat that rising world temperatures could pose, especially in the wake of Al Gore’s pioneering documentary An Inconvenient Truth. In Africa, Ban convinced Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to allow a U.N. peacekeeping mission to negotiate an end to the War in Darfur.
Ban also tried to press back on Russia’s burgeoning global might, reminding them of their strength and ability to end conflict and bring peace to the world, whether it was in Crimea or Syria. Ban also delivered a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council titled “The Time has Come,” declaring the global intolerance towards the LGBT community a violation of human rights. The speech, rather unsurprisingly, was met with great protest by many representatives, who staged a walk-out protest during his oration. Ban remains a champion of the global LGBT liberation movement and strongly condemned countries where same-sex marriage was illegal.
Like some of his colleagues, Ban became involved in his domestic political scene after leaving office. He lost a bid for President of South Korea in 2017, losing the race for the Blue House to the incumbent Moon Jae-In. Ban is often criticized for his time in office. Many, though, many contend that Ban’s portrayal in the media, not his actions, are to blame. Ban notably dismissed Anders Kompass, a Swedish diplomat, for exposing a sexual assault ring in the Central African Republic operated by French U.N. Peacekeepers. Ban’s suspension of his position was later deemed unlawful in court.
10- Antonio Guterres (Portugal): 2017-Present
Guterres was no stranger to the political scene. Before taking office, he had served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995-2002. An advocate of Universal Basic Income who served as former President of the Socialist International, Guterres took office on January 1st, 2017.
Guterres supported Catalonian Independence in 2017, reinforcing the notion that the referendum should be complete within the limits of the Spanish Constitution. He opposed Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and has further condemned Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank. He supported the ceasefire signed by Israel and the United Arab Emirates, calling upon the world to seek “any initiative that can promote peace and security in the Middle East region.” Guterres has been criticized by numerous human rights organizations since 2019 for failing to stand up to China about the placement of Uighurs in re-education camps. These accusations, though true, seem to point to a rather atypical quality of Guterres—a staunch defender of human rights, he was elected based on his known ability and willingness to “stand up” to powerful countries in times of crisis. More recently, Guterres has called for an end to conflicts in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Guterres will have to deal with plenty of crises before the end of his tenure, including COVID-19, and global warming, though the eloquent dealmaker is well-liked and trusted to do his best. Like his predecessors before him, Guterres is, most importantly, an advocate for peace.
