Kurt Waldheim

In 1945 he joined the Austrian diplomatic service, serving as First Secretary of the Legation in Paris from 1948, and in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Vienna from 1951. In 1956 he was made Ambassador to Canada, until going back to the Ministry in 1960, after which he became the Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations in 1964. From 1968 he was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs in Austria serving for the Austrian People's Party), before going back as Permanent Representative to the UN in 1970. He was defeated in the Austrian presidential elections in 1971, but successfully negotiated the election to become United Nations Secretary General, in 1972, and re-elected in 1976 despite some opposition. In 1981 his attempt for a third term was blocked by a PRC veto.

Unsuccessfully Waldhem had sought to be elected President of Austria in 1971, but a second attempt in 1986 proved successful despite revelations that he had served as an officer in a German army unit that had committed war atrocities in Yugoslavia, during World War II. An investigation cleared him from the allegations, but his term as president was tainted and he would not seek re-election in 1992.

His memoirs, mainly about his time as head of the UN Secretariat, was published in 1985 under the title In the Eye of the Storm.