Kurt Waldheim

Kurt Josef Waldheim (German: [ˈkʊɐ̯t ˈvalthaɪm] (listen); 21 December 1918 – 14 June 2007) was an Austrian politician and diplomat. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and President of Austria from 1986 to 1992. While he was running for the latter office in the 1986 election, the revelation of his service in Greece and Yugoslavia, as an intelligence officer in Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht during World War II, raised international controversy.

Kurt Waldheim
Waldheim in 1971
President of Austria
In office
8 July 1986 – 8 July 1992
ChancellorFranz Vranitzky
Preceded byRudolf Kirchschläger
Succeeded byThomas Klestil
4th Secretary-General of the United Nations
In office
1 January 1972 – 31 December 1981
Preceded byU Thant
Succeeded byJavier Pérez de Cuéllar
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
19 January 1968 – 21 April 1970
ChancellorJosef Klaus
Preceded byLujo Tončić-Sorinj
Succeeded byRudolf Kirchschläger
Personal details
Born(1918-12-21)21 December 1918
Sankt Andrä-Wördern, Lower Austria, Republic of German-Austria
Died14 June 2007(2007-06-14) (aged 88)
Vienna, Austria
Political partyAustrian People's Party
Spouse(s)
ChildrenLieselotte
Gerhard
Christa
Alma materVienna Consular Academy
Profession
  • lawyer
  • diplomat
Signature
Military service
Allegiance Austria (1936–1937)
 Germany (1941–1945)
Branch/service German Army
RankOberleutnant
Unit5 Alpine Division Pusteria
Kampfgruppe West
9th Army
11th Italian Army
Army Group E
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsIron Cross 2nd Class
Medal of the Crown of King Zvonimir

Early life and education

Waldheim was born in Sankt Andrä-Wördern, near Vienna, on 21 December 1918.[1] His father was a Roman Catholic school inspector of Czech origin named Watzlawick[2] (original Czech spelling Václavík) who changed his name that year as the Habsburg monarchy collapsed. Waldheim served in the Austrian Army (1936–37) and attended the Vienna Consular Academy, where he graduated in 1939. Waldheim's father was active in the Christian Social Party. Waldheim himself was politically unaffiliated during these years at the Academy.

Three weeks after the German annexation of Austria in 1938, Waldheim applied for membership in the National Socialist German Students' League (NSDStB), a division of the Nazi Party.[3] Shortly thereafter he became a registered member of the mounted corps of the SA.

On 19 August 1944, he married Elisabeth Ritschel in Vienna; their first daughter, Lieselotte, was born the following year. A son, Gerhard, and another daughter, Christa, followed.

Military service in World War II

In early 1941, Waldheim was drafted into the Wehrmacht and posted to the Eastern Front where he served as a squad leader. In December, he was wounded but returned to service in 1942. His service in the Wehrmacht from 1942 to 1945 was the subject of international review in 1985 and 1986. In his 1985 autobiography, he stated that he was discharged from further service at the front and, for the remainder of the war, finished his law degree at the University of Vienna, in addition to marrying in 1944.[4] After publication, documents and witnesses came to light that revealed Waldheim's military service continued until 1945, during which time he rose to the rank of Oberleutnant.

Service in Yugoslavia and Greece

Waldheim's functions within the staff of German Army Group E from 1942 until 1945, as determined by the International Commission of Historians,[5] were:

By 1943, Waldheim was serving in the capacity of an aide-de-camp in Army Group E which was headed by General Alexander Löhr.[6] In 1986, Waldheim said that he had served only as an interpreter and a clerk and had no knowledge either of reprisals against local Serb civilians or of massacres in neighboring provinces of Yugoslavia. He said that he had known about some of the things that had happened, and had been horrified, but could not see what else he could have done.[4]

Much historical interest has centred on Waldheim's role in Operation Kozara in 1942.[7] According to one post-war investigator, prisoners were routinely shot within only a few hundred metres (yards) of Waldheim's office,[8] and 35 kilometres (22 mi) away at the Jasenovac concentration camp. Waldheim later stated that "he did not know about the murder of civilians there".[8]

Waldheim's name appears on the Wehrmacht's "honour list" of those responsible for the militarily successful operation. The Nazi puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia, awarded Waldheim the Medal of the Crown of King Zvonimir in silver with an oak branches cluster.[9] Decades later, during the lobbying for his election as U.N. Secretary General, Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, who had led anti-German forces during the war, awarded Waldheim one of the highest Yugoslav orders, not knowing of his prior military service.[10]

Waldheim denied that he knew war crimes were taking place in Bosnia at the height of the battles between the Nazis and Tito's partisans in 1943.[11] According to Eli Rosenbaum, in 1944, Waldheim reviewed and approved a packet of anti-Semitic propaganda leaflets to be dropped behind Soviet lines, one of which ended: "Enough of the Jewish war, kill the Jews, come over."[12]

Surrender

In 1945, Waldheim surrendered to British forces in Carinthia, at which point he said he had fled his command post within Army Group E, where he was serving with General Löhr, who was seeking a special deal with the British.

Diplomatic career

Waldheim joined the Austrian diplomatic service in 1945, after finishing his studies in law at the University of Vienna. He served as First Secretary of the Legation in Paris from 1948, and in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Vienna from 1951 to 1956. In 1956 he was made Ambassador to Canada, returning to the Ministry in 1960, after which he became the Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations in 1964. For two years beginning in 1968, he was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs for the Austrian People's Party, before going back as Permanent Representative to the U.N. in 1970. Shortly afterwards, he ran and was defeated in the 1971 Austrian presidential elections.

United Nations Secretary-General
Waldheim c. 1971.

After losing the presidential election, Waldheim ran for Secretary-General of the United Nations in the 1971 selection. Waldheim was supported by the Soviet Union and led the first two rounds of voting. However, he was opposed by China, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Waldheim won an accidental victory in the third round of voting when those three permanent members failed to coordinate their vetoes and all abstained.[13] Waldheim succeeded U Thant as United Nations Secretary-General in 1972.

As Secretary-General, Waldheim opened and addressed a number of major international conferences convened under United Nations auspices. These included the third session of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (Santiago, April 1972), the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, June 1972), the third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea (Caracas, June 1974), the Third World Population Conference (Bucharest, August 1974) and the World Food Conference (Rome, November 1974). However, his diplomatic efforts particularly in the Middle East were overshadowed by the diplomacy of then U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger.[14]

Waldheim with family c. 1971

On 11 September 1972, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin sent a telegram to Waldheim, copies of which went to Yasser Arafat and Golda Meir. In the telegram, Amin "applauded the massacre of the Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich and said Germany was the most appropriate locale for this because it was where Hitler burned more than six million Jews."[15] Amin also called "to expel Israel from the United Nations and to send all the Israelis to Britain, which bore the guilt for creating the Jewish state."[16] Amidst international protest, "the UN spokesman said [in his daily press conference] it was not the secretary-general's practice to comment on telegrams sent him by heads of government. He added that the secretary-general condemned any form of racial discrimination and genocide."[16]

After Operation Entebbe on 7 July 1976 – in which Israeli commandos freed more than 100 Israeli and Jewish passengers held captive in Entebbe Airport (Uganda's main airport) by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and German Revolutionary Cells fighters protected by forces of dictator Idi Amin, and where all the hijackers, three hostages, and 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed – Waldheim described the raid as a "serious violation of the national sovereignty of a United Nations member state".[17]

Waldheim ran for a second term in the 1976 UN Secretary-General selection. However, China was still opposed to Waldheim and approached several Third World countries seeking challengers.[18] Outgoing Mexican President Luis Echeverría finally entered the race in October 1976, making Waldheim the only Secretary-General to face a contested re-selection campaign. Waldheim resoundingly defeated Echeverría in the first round of voting. China cast a single symbolic veto against Waldheim in the first round and voted for him in the second round, handing him an easy victory with 14 of 15 votes on the Security Council.[19]

Waldheim and then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter both recorded statements for the Voyager Golden Records, which were launched into deep space on the Voyager spacecraft in 1977.[20] He was the first Secretary-General to visit North Korea, in 1979.[21] In 1980, Waldheim flew to Iran in an attempt to negotiate the release of the American hostages held in Tehran, but Ayatollah Khomeini refused to see him.[14] While in Tehran, it was announced that an attempt on Waldheim's life had been foiled. Near the end of his tenure as Secretary-General, Waldheim and British popular musician Paul McCartney organized a series of concerts for the People of Kampuchea to help Cambodia recover from the damage done by Pol Pot.[22]

Waldheim ran for an unprecedented third full term as Secretary-General in the 1981 selection. China was determined to unseat him this time and lined up a strong candidate in Salim Ahmed Salim of Tanzania. In the first round of voting, Waldheim lost to Salim by one vote. However, Salim was vetoed by the United States, while Waldheim was vetoed by China. The veto duel between China and the United States lasted a record 16 rounds. After six weeks of deadlock, Waldheim and Salim both withdrew from the race. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru won the selection and succeeded Waldheim as Secretary-General of the United Nations.[23]:411 The events of 1981 established a two-term limit on the office, and no Secretary-General since Waldheim has run for a third term.

Presidency of Austria

Election and Waldheim Affair
From left: Italian General Ercole Roncaglia, Kurt Waldheim, Oberst (Colonel) Macholz and SS General Artur Phleps (with briefcase) at Podgorica airfield in Montenegro during Case Black, 22 May 1943. This photograph caused much controversy when it was published while Waldheim was running for the Austrian presidency in 1985–1986.

Waldheim had unsuccessfully sought election as President of Austria in 1971, but his second attempt on 8 June 1986 proved successful. During his campaign for the presidency in 1985, what became known internationally as the "Waldheim affair" began. Before the presidential elections, investigative journalist Alfred Worm revealed in the Austrian weekly news magazine Profil that there had been several omissions about Waldheim's life between 1938 and 1945 in his recently published autobiography.[24]

Waldheim had previously claimed to have received a medical discharge after being wounded in winter 1942. His aides at the United Nations even accused the Israeli mission of spreading rumors that he supported the Nazis. Israeli ambassador Yehuda Zvi Blum denied the charges, saying, "We don't believe Waldheim ever supported the Nazis and we never said he did. We have many differences with him, but that isn't one of them."[25]

A short time later, beginning on 4 March 1986, the World Jewish Congress alleged that Waldheim had lied about his service in the mounted corps of the SA and had concealed his service as a special missions staff officer (Ordonnanzoffizier) for Germany's Army Group E in Yugoslavia and Greece, from 1942 to 1944, based primarily on captured German wartime records held at the United States National Archives in Washington, DC, and in other archives.[26][27][28] The 23 March 1986 public disclosure by the World Jewish Congress that the organization had unearthed the fact that the United Nations War Crimes Commission concluded after the war that Waldheim was implicated in Nazi mass murder and should be arrested arguably transformed the Waldheim affair into the most sensational of all post-war Nazi scandals.[29]

Waldheim called the allegations, which grew in magnitude in the ensuing months, "pure lies and malicious acts".[30] Nevertheless, he admitted that he had known about German reprisals against partisans: "Yes, I knew. I was horrified. But what could I do? I had either to continue to serve or be executed."[30] He said that he had never fired a shot or even seen a partisan.[30] His former immediate superior at the time stated that Waldheim had "remained confined to a desk".[30] Former Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky, of Jewish origin, denounced the actions of the World Jewish Congress as an "extraordinary infamy",[30] adding that Austrians would not "allow the Jews abroad to ... tell us who should be our President."

Part of the reason for the controversy was Austria's refusal to address its national role in the Holocaust (many leading Nazis, including Adolf Hitler, were Austrians, and Austria became part of the Third Reich). Austria refused to pay compensation to Nazi victims, and from 1970 onwards refused to investigate Austrian citizens who were senior Nazis.[31] Stolen Jewish art remained public property a generation after the Waldheim affair.[32]

Because the revelations leading to the Waldheim affair came shortly before the presidential election, there has been speculation about the background of the affair.

Declassified documents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency show that the CIA had been aware of some details of his wartime past since 1945.[33] Information about Waldheim's wartime past was also previously published by a pro-German Austrian newspaper, Salzburger Volksblatt, during the 1971 presidential election campaign, including the claim of an SS membership, but the matter was supposedly regarded as unimportant or even advantageous for the candidate at that time.[34]

According to several of Waldheim's obituarists, his wartime past and the discrepancies in his autobiography, In the Eye of the Storm, must have been known to both superpowers before he was elected UN Secretary-General, and there were rumors that the KGB had blackmailed him during his UN time (for example here and here).[35]

In 1994, former Mossad officer Victor Ostrovsky claimed in his book The Other Side of Deception that Mossad doctored Waldheim's file while he was serving as Secretary-General to implicate him in Nazi crimes. These allegedly false documents were subsequently "discovered" by Benjamin Netanyahu in the UN file and triggered the "Waldheim Affair". Ostrovsky says that this was motivated by Waldheim's criticism of Israel's war in Lebanon.[36] Controversy surrounds Ostrovsky because many of his revelations have not been sourced or otherwise confirmed, leading several critics to say that most of his work (including The Other Side of Deception) is fictional. Ostrovsky's service in Mossad was confirmed when the Israeli government unsuccessfully attempted to stop publication of the book.[37][38]

Allegations of Nazi war crimes

In view of the ongoing international controversy, the Austrian government decided to appoint an international committee of historians to examine Waldheim's life between 1938 and 1945. Their report found no evidence of any personal involvement in those crimes.[39] Although Waldheim had stated that he was unaware of any crimes taking place, the committee cited evidence that Waldheim must have known about war crimes.[40]

In response to Waldheim's denial that he knew about war crimes, Simon Wiesenthal stated that Waldheim was stationed 5 miles (8.0 km) from Thessaloniki while, over the course of several weeks, the Jewish community, which formed one-third of the population there, was sent to Auschwitz:

I could only reply what the committee of historians likewise made clear in its report: "I cannot believe you."[40]

Wiesenthal, whose conduct in the Waldheim affair was sharply criticized by the World Jewish Congress and others,[41] and whose "adamant defense of Waldheim" and "public, personal attacks against the WJC investigators" "ultimately tarnished his prominent global reputation,"[42] stated the committee found no evidence that Waldheim took part in any war crimes but was guilty of lying about his military record.[43] The International Committee in February 1988 concluded that he could not have stopped what was going on in Yugoslavia and Greece even if he had known:

In favour of Waldheim is, that he only had very minor possibilities to act against the injustices happening. Actions against these, depending on which level the resistance occurred, were of very different importance. For a young member of the staff, who did not have any military authority on the army group level, the practical possibilities for resistance were very limited and with a high probability would not have led to any actual results. Resistance would have been limited to a formal protest or on the refusal to serve any longer in the army, which would have seemed to be a courageous act, however would have not led to any practical achievement.[44]

On 27 April 1987, the United States Department of Justice and the United States Department of State announced that evidence amassed in an investigation conducted by the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) had established a prima facie case that Waldheim participated in Nazi-sponsored persecution during World War II and therefore that his entry into the United States was prohibited by federal statute. This marked the first time that a head of state had been put on an immigration watchlist.[45][46] The 232-page internal Department of Justice 9 April 1987 investigative report was released in 1994 by that agency, and it is available at the agency's website.[47] The report catalogues evidence that, the U.S. government concluded, proved that Waldheim had taken part in, among other actions: the transfer of civilian prisoners to the SS for exploitation as slave labor; the mass deportation of civilians—including Jews from Greek islands and the town of Banja Luka, Yugoslavia—to concentration and death camps; the utilization of anti-Semitic propaganda; the mistreatment and execution of Allied prisoners; and reprisal executions of hostages and other civilians.[48] Additional allegations of participation in Nazi crimes, with citations to captured Nazi documents and other records, were leveled in a 1993 book by Eli Rosenbaum, the former U.S. federal prosecutor who had directed the World Jewish Congress investigation that led to the New York Times' initial exposure of Waldheim's hidden Nazi-era past in 1986. The authors also cited evidence that the governments of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia had covered up Waldheim's wartime past and used it to blackmail him before and during his tenure as United Nations Secretary General, and that the U.S. intelligence community had committed a major error in failing to detect the Cold War weaponization of that information by the two communist governments.[49]

Harold H. Tittmann III, an American lawyer and author based in Europe, harshly criticized the Justice Department's OSI investigation and its report in his 2000 book, The Waldheim Affair: Democracy Subverted. According to this author, the report was only released because of legal pressure brought by John Mapother, a retired CIA officer who had served in Austria and "had been skeptical about the existence of evidence the OSI claimed to have uncovered."[50] Tittmann argued that OSI exceeded its statutory authority in producing the report and that it relied too heavily on material from the World Jewish Congress. Throughout, the book also strongly criticized U.S. media treatment of Waldheim. It concluded that "American reporting . . . was often biased, inaccurate, or incomplete. True, the Waldheim story was unusually complex and required much research for a proper understanding, but this complexity cannot excuse the one-sided opinions that emanated from editorial desks."[51]

Foreign visits

Throughout his term as President (1986–1992), Kurt Waldheim was officially deemed persona non grata by the United States and, officially or informally, by nearly every other nation in the world outside the Arab world.[34][52]

Later years and death

After his term ended in 1992, Waldheim did not seek re-election. The same year, he was made an honorary member of K.H.V. Welfia Klosterneuburg, a Roman Catholic student fraternity part of the Austrian Cartellverband. In 1994, Pope John Paul II awarded Waldheim a knighthood in the Order of Pius IX and his wife a papal honor.[53] He died on 14 June 2007, at the age of 88 from heart failure.[54] On 23 June, his funeral was held at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, and he was buried at the Presidential Vault in the Zentralfriedhof ("central cemetery").[55]

In his speech at the Cathedral, Federal President Heinz Fischer called Waldheim "a great Austrian" who had been wrongfully accused of having committed war crimes. Fischer also praised Waldheim for his efforts to solve international crises and for his contributions to world peace.[56] At Waldheim's own request, no foreign heads of states or governments were invited to attend his funeral except Hans-Adam II, the Prince of Liechtenstein. Also present was Luis Durnwalder, governor of the Italian province of South Tyrol. Japan and Syria were the only two countries that laid wreaths on his grave. Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, issued a message 'voicing sadness'.[57] In a two-page letter, published posthumously by the Austrian Press Agency the day after he died, Waldheim admitted making "mistakes" ("but these were certainly not those of a follower let alone an accomplice of a criminal regime") and asked his critics for forgiveness.[58]

Media references
  • W. G. Sebald's novel The Rings of Saturn (1995; English trans., 1998) refers to Waldheim, though not by name.[59]
  • As a much-heralded invited guest on Dame Edna Everage's talk show The Dame Edna Experience, a dignified "Kurt Waldheim" began a grand entrance, except that halfway down the staircase, he abruptly fell through a hidden chute and disappeared: the band's fanfare stopped as Dame Edna explained she had decided at the last minute to "abort" Dr. Waldheim's appearance because it would have been "too political". The episode aired 12 September 1987.
  • A running segment on The Howard Stern Show is called Guess Who's the Jew and features Fred Norris portraying a Nazi Kurt Waldheim, Jr.[60]
  • Musician Lou Reed's 1989 New York album contains a song called "Good Evening Mr. Waldheim."
  • Harry Turtledove's 2003 alternate history novel, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, in which Germany won the Second World War, a "Kurt Haldweim" is the third Führer of Germany, and parts of Haldweim's biography closely parallel Waldheim's. For instance, both Waldheim and Haldweim were born in Austria in 1918 and served in the Wehrmacht in Thessaloniki during World War II.
  • In a 1988 ice hockey film entitled Hockey, The Lighter Side, former New York Rangers goaltender John Davidson is explaining his fictional goaltender school, and as hockey highlights play, he exclaims, "You'll have more shots taken at you than Kurt Waldheim."
  • In episode 3, series 2 of The Million Pound Radio Show, Andy Hamilton announces next week's special guest as Waldheim, "although he'll deny [his appearance on the show] in 40 years time."
  • In an episode of The New Statesman, aired in 1989, Alan B'Stard (Rik Mayall) attempts to blackmail an aged former Nazi officer, who complains that, "it's not fair; I'm living here in the tripe capital of Europe, while Kurt Waldheim is President of Austria — and he was beneath me!"
  • American poet Srikanth Reddy's 2011 book Voyager presents a collection of poems and fragments created by erasing large sections of Waldheim's memoir In the Eye of the Storm.
  • Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis and its film adaptation reference the election in Austria.
  • In the 2015 fiction novel The Lady From Zagreb by Philip Kerr, the protagonist, Captain Bernie Gunther, encounters a young Intelligence Officer, Lieutenant Kurt Waldheim while on a mission in Yugoslavia in 1942.
  • In the 2015 film Woman in Gold, Hubertus Czernin shows Maria Altmann an issue of Profil uncovering Waldheim's Nazi past.
  • The 2018 Ruth Beckermann-directed documentary The Waldheim Waltz is about the 1986 Austrian presidential campaign and the controversy over Waldheim's actions during World War II.[61]

Bibliography
  • Waldheim, Kurt (1985). In the Eye of the Storm: The Memoirs of Kurt Waldheim. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78678-4.
  • Waldheim, Kurt (1996) [1966]. Die Antwort (The Answer). ISBN 3850023710.
  • Waldheim, Kurt (1971). The Austrian Example. ISBN 0297765221.
  • Waldheim, Kurt (1980) [1977 (French)]. The Challenge of Peace. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0297775863.
  • Waldheim, Kurt (1980). Building the Future Order. Free Press. ISBN 0029336708.
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References
  1. Former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim dies at 88 – Haaretz – Israel News
  2. Kurt Waldheim, The Daily Telegraph, 15 June 2007.
  3. Report of the International Historical Commission of 8 February 1988, section on "Membership in National Socialist Organizations", as cited, e.g., in Waldheim Affäre Archived 25 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine. nationalsozialismus.at
  4. "Kurt Waldheim: Austrian head of the UN who as president of his country was later tainted by charges of complicity in Nazi atrocities". The Times. London. 15 June 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
  5. see page 39 of The Waldheim Report. Submitted 8 February 1988 to Federal Chancellor Dr. Franz Vranitzky
  6. Walther-Peer Fellgiebel (2000), Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945. Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5
  7. Kandell, Jonathan (15 June 2007). "Kurt Waldheim". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 May 2010. Waldheim took part in, and was decorated for, Operation Kozara, a large-scale antipartisan operation involving mass reprisals – at the rate of 100 executions for every German killed – and mass deportations of Serb women and children to concentration camps.
  8. Casey, Dennis (1 May 2005). "Kurt Waldheim: man of mystery". Spokesman Magazine. Archived from the original on 19 November 2011.
  9. Letter from Europe: Vienna, 20 June The New Yorker
  10. "Wir Österreicher wählen, wen wir wollen". Der Spiegel (in German). 14 April 1986. Staatschef Tito überreichte Waldheim trotzdem einen der höchsten jugoslawischen Orden [Anyhow, Tito awarded Waldheim with one of the highest Yugoslav orders].
  11. "Kurt Waldheim". The Daily Telegraph. London. 15 June 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  12. Rosenbaum, EM with Hoffer W, Betrayal: The Untold Story of the Kurt Waldheim Investigation and Cover-Up St. Martin's Press, 1993, ISBN 0-312-08219-3, p. 338
  13. FRUS 1969–1976 V, Document 247: Telegram From the Mission to the United Nations to the Department of State, 22 December 1971, 0356Z.
  14. Obituary: Kurt Waldheim BBC News (14 June 2007)
  15. Israeli-Ugandan Relations in the Time of Idi Amin by Arye Oded, Jewish Political Studies Review 18:3–4 (Fall 2006)
  16. Israeli Ugandan Relations in the Time of Idi Amin JCPA
  17. "July 4, Day of Operation Entebbe, Israel Upgrades Uganda Airport". The Jewish Press. 4 July 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
  18. Hofmann, Paul (17 April 1976). "It's Election Year at U.N., With Waldheim Post Open". The New York Times.
  19. "Waldheim is Backed by Security Council for Five Years More". The New York Times. 8 December 1976.
  20. Voyager – Spacecraft – Golden Record
  21. "Discipline and Devotion", TIME, 28 May 1979 Retrieved 1 December 2008.
  22. CBC.ca – Arts – Music – Charity Begins
  23. Sievers, Loraine; Davis, Sam (2014). The Procedure of the UN Security Council (4 ed.). Oxford Univ Press. ISBN 9780199685295.
  24. Mitten, Richard (1992). The Politics of the Antisemitic Prejudice. The Waldheim Phenomenon in Austria (PDF). Boulder: Westview Press. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  25. Rosen, Jane (13 September 1981). "The U.N.'s Man in the Middle". The New York Times Magazine.
  26. See Section "Military Service" above
  27. Levy, Richard S. (2005). Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution. ABC-CLIO. p. 753.
  28. See 4 March 1986 WABC-TV news report (New York City) on the worldwide exposure that day of Waldheim's Nazi past, at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY_mJLwBgrc&t=45s and a report of the same date on WOR-TV (New York City) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxXE_4nyxUg
  29. See WNBC-TV (New York City) 23 March 1986 news report on the World Jewish Congress's revelation of the U.N. War Crimes Commission inclusion of Waldheim on the UNWCC wanted list at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R97kxi1InWc&t=13s
  30. Serrill, Michael S.; McWhirter, William; Svoboda, Wayne (7 April 1986). "Sequels Running Out of Answers". Time. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
  31. Zuroff, Efraim (April 2002) "Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, 2001–2002," Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem.
  32. Knöfel, Ulrike and Kraske, Marion (4 April 2008)Stealing Beauty: Dispute Rages Over Austria's Looted Art Der Spiegel
  33. Records of the Central Intelligence Agency (RG 263). archives.gov
  34. World Socialist Web Site obituary
  35. "Kurt Waldheim". The Independent. London. 15 June 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2010. Alternative links here
  36. Ostrovsky, Victor (1994). "The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue Agent Exposes the Mossad's Secret Agenda". HarperCollins.
  37. "18 June 2008 meeting – Victor Ostrovsky, Former Mossad Officer". AFIO. June 2008.
  38. Connolly, Kate (2 May 2001). "CIA knew about Waldheim's Nazi past". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  39. Kurz, Rudolf; Collins, James I. Collins; Fleischer, Hagen; Fleming, Gerald; Messerschmidt, Manfred; Vanwelkenhuyzen, Jean; Wallach, Jehuda L. (1993). THe Wadheim Report. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. p. 209f. ISBN 877289206 4.
  40. Wiesenthal, Simon (1999) "The Waldheim Case" in Contemporary Jewish Writing in Austria. Dagmar Lorenz (ed.). pp. 81–95. University of Nebraska press. ISBN 0803229232.
  41. See, for example, letter to the editor published in The Jerusalem Post on 20 August 1986, from Avner Less, the former Israeli Police interrogator of captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.
  42. Mary Kathryn Barbier, "Spies, Lies and Citizenship: The Hunt for Nazi War Criminals" (Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press, 2017)
  43. Kurt Waldheim The Guardian
  44. James L. Collins Jr. u.a.: Bericht der internationalen Historikerkommission, Schlussbetrachtung, 8. February 1988. (translated from German)
  45. 27 April 1987 statement released to the press by U.S. Department of Justice Director of Public Affairs Terry Eastland, reported in https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/28/world/waldheim-barred-from-entering-us-over-role-in-war.html
  46. ABC "World News Tonight" with Peter Jennings, 27 April 1987 newscast (excerpt) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYEHe7PyBoE
  47. "In the Matter of Kurt Waldheim", at https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-hrsp/legacy/2011/02/04/04-09-87waldheim-rpt.pdf
  48. See excerpt of March 1994 CNN report on the release of the Justice Department OSI report at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvt8UlosSQM
  49. Eli M. Rosenbaum with William Hoffer, Betrayal: The Inside Story of the Kurt Waldheim Investigation and Cover-Up, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993.
  50. Tittmann III, Harold H. (2000). The Waldheim Affair: Democracy Subverted. Dunkirk, NY: Olin Frederick. pp. 73–74. ISBN 0-9672357-4-X.
  51. Tittmann III, Harold H. (2000). The Waldheim Affair: Democracy Subverted. Dunkirk, NY: Olin Frederick. pp. 76–84, 96. ISBN 0-9672357-4-X.
  52. "Waldheim, ex-UN leader and Nazi, buried in Austria". Reuters. 23 June 2007.
  53. "Waldheim's Wife Gets a Papal Award". The New York Times. 22 August 1994. Retrieved 14 June 2007.
  54. "Kurt Waldheim dies at 88; ex-UN chief hid Nazi past". The New York Times. 14 June 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2007.
  55. "Former Austrian president whose term was marred by wartime service buried", Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), 23 June 2007.
  56. Trauerfeier für Altbundespräsident Dr. Kurt Waldheim im Wiener Stephansdom, 23.06.2007 (Speech of President Heinz Fischer)
  57. Ban Ki-moon voices sadness at death of former Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. un.org
  58. Waldheim Vermaechtnis Active Paper
  59. Sebald, W.G. The Rings of Saturn (translated by Michael Hulse)
  60. Howard Stern.com Archived 21 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  61. The Waldheim Waltz, IMDb.com https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8055880/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
  • Duncan, Evan M., ed. (2004), United Nations, 1969–1972, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume V, Washington: United States Government Printing Office

Further reading
  • Bassett, Richard (1988). Waldheim and Austria, Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-013019-5
  • Herzstein, Robert Edwin (1988). Waldheim, the Missing Years. First ed. New York: W. Morrow and Co., 1988. 303 p., ill. with b&w photos. ISBN 0-87795-959-5
  • International Commission of Historians (1993). The Waldheim Report. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen. p. 224. ISBN 87-7289-206-4.
  • Rosenbaum, Eli M. with William Hoffer. Betrayal: The Inside Story of the Kurt Waldheim Investigation and Cover-Up, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.
  • Office of Special Investigations, United States Department of Justice Criminal Division internal investigative report: In the Matter of Kurt Waldheim, at https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-hrsp/legacy/2011/02/04/04-09-87waldheim-rpt.pdf
  • Eli M. Rosenbaum, "The Kurt Waldheim Affair," in Ronald S. Lauder (Foreword) and Menachem Z. Rosensaft (Editor). The World Jewish Congress, 1936–2016, New York: World Jewish Congress LLC, 2017.
  • Harold H. Tittmann III, The Waldheim Affair: Democracy Subverted. Dunkirk, NY: Olin Frederick, 2000. ISBN 0-9672357-4-X.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
U Thant		 United Nations Secretary-General
1972–1981		 Succeeded by
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
Political offices
Preceded by
Rudolf Kirchschläger		 State President of Austria
1986–1992		 Succeeded by
Thomas Klestil

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