The denunciation nearly resulted in a death sentence for Dvořáček who eventually spent 14 years in communist prisons.Īt that time, Kundera was a student of the Academy of Film Arts who had just been expelled from the communist party. On Monday, 13th December 2008, a Czech weekly magazine Respekt published information that Milan Kundera, the most distinguished Czech novelist, apparently reported a young man and agent Miroslav Dvořáček to the state police on 14th March 1950. However, it is also inseparable from questions of which past is to be dealt with and how. To deal, or not to deal with the past, indeed, is an important question. Not to contend with the past injustices thus compromises the legitimacy of the present system of positive law. However, the past also contains injustices and political crimes and any decision not to deal with them in the present only reaffirms them and confirms the unjust status of their victims. Past events are both denounced and glorified by political agents of the present hoping to weaken their enemies. Dealing with the past reveals the power struggles and strategies of the present. In 1977, Waldheim was awarded an honorary degree of doctor of sciences from Moscow State University for his fruitful activities in the area of international cooperation and for his active struggle to strengthen peace and friendship among peoples.History is a battlefield of present politics. Waldheim holds honorary doctor of laws degrees from a number of foreign universities. In 1971 he was the candidate of the Austrian People’s Party for president of Austria. He served as minister of foreign affairs from 1968 to 1970. Waldheim was Austria’s permanent representative to the United Nations from 1964 to 1968 and again in 19. He was director-general for political affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1960 to 1964. In the period 1956 to 1960, Waldheim served first as minister to Canada and then as ambassador. From 1951 to 1955 he headed the personnel division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He entered the Austrian diplomatic service in 1945. The son of a civil servant, Waldheim graduated from the Vienna Consular Academy in 1938 and from the University of Vienna, where he received a doctor of laws degree, in 1944. Secretary-general of the United Nations (1972–81). 21, 1918, in Sankt Andrä-Wördern, Lower Austria. Beckermann, dir., The Waldheim Waltz (documentary, 2018).īorn Dec. See his memoir (1986) and autobiography (1999) R. His tenure as president was marked by international isolation, and he did not run in 1992. Nonetheless, many felt he must have known more than he revealed, and the allegations overshadowed his diplomatic and political legacy. He consistently denied any knowledge of the atrocities, and an international investigation cleared him of complicity. In 1986 he was elected president of Austria, despite the scandal caused by the revelation that he had been an officer in a German army unit that committed atrocities in Yugoslavia during World War II. He was succeeded as secretary-general by Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. He was reelected in 1976 despite Third World opposition, but was blocked from a third term by a Chinese veto in 1981. Austria's permanent representative to the United Nations (1964–68), he later served (1968–70) as Austria's foreign minister and lost (1971) an election for the Austrian presidency.Įlected to a five-year term as UN secretary-general in Dec., 1971, Waldheim attempted, with little success, to end the Iran-Iraq war and the China-Vietnam war and to gain the release of American hostages in Iran. When Austria entered the United Nations in 1958, Waldheim was a member of its delegation. He entered diplomatic service after World War II, serving in France and Canada. Waldheim, Kurt (ko͝ort vältˈhīm), 1918–2007, Austrian diplomat, secretary-general of the United Nations (1972–81) and president of Austria (1986–92).
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