
1971 portrait of U Thant, Burmese secretary general of the United Nations (UN). AP/photo hide caption
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AP/photo
In the early 1960s, U Thant, a practicing Buddhist from a remote town in Burma, became the first non-Western secretary-general of the United Nations. He immediately faced unfolding crises around the world. We talk with U Thant’s grandson about his new book “Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World.”