Waldheim, Kurt

(1918–2007)

   Trained as a jurist, Waldheim served as Austrian foreign minister from 1968 to 1971. In 1971, he was the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) candidate for president of the republic, but lost the election. He then served two terms from 1971 to 1981 as secretary general of the United Nations. During a second campaign for the presidency of the Austrian Republic in 1986, charges were brought against Waldheim by the World Jewish Congress and by the Office of Special Investigation of the United States Department of Justice that he had not been fully candid about his record and role as an army officer during World War II. He was thought to be covering up his complicity in Nazi war atrocities in Greece and in what was then Yugoslavia. Alleged inconsistencies in dates when he was finishing his legal studies while on furlough in 1943 and differences in detail between the English and German editions of his memoirs fueled these suspicions.

   Waldheim’s election to a five-year term as president in Austria in 1986 set off a firestorm of criticism throughout much of the world. During his term in office, Waldheim was effectively isolated from formal diplomatic channels. An international tribunal of historians found no evidence that Waldheim had participated in Nazi war crimes. Nevertheless, doubts about the former president’s veracity still linger. In 1991, lacking support in his own ÖVP, Waldheim announced that he would not run for the office again. His decision made him the first president of the post–World War II Austrian Republic not to seek a second term of office.