Kurt Waldheim (Austria) Term of Office: 1972-1981

Kurt Waldheim was appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations for a five-year term beginning on 1 January 1972. He was appointed to a second term in 1976 and served until 31 December 1981.

The Secretary-General was born at Sankt Andrä-Wördern, near Vienna, Austria, on 21 December 1918. He graduated from the University of Vienna as a Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1944. Mr. Waldheim joined the Austrian diplomatic service in 1945. From 1964 to 1968, he was Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations. During that period, he was Chairman of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space; in 1968 he was elected President of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

From January 1968 to April 1970, Mr. Waldheim was Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Austria. After leaving the Government, he was unanimously elected Chairman of the Safeguards Committee of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and in October 1970 he again became the Austrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, a post he held until he was elected Secretary-General of the Organization. In 1986, Mr. Waldheim went on to become President of Austria.

Mr. Waldheim died on 14 June 2007, in Vienna, Austria, at the age of 88.