Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The UN’s first non-Western secretary-general, a soft-spoken Buddhist from rural Burma, once stood between the superpowers and nuclear annihilation, yet his story is largely untold.
In Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World, historian Thant Myint‑U mines newly declassified archives to show how his grandfather U Thant steered the world through the Cuban Missile Crisis, mediated conflicts from the Congo to Kashmir, challenged Washington over Vietnam, and championed decolonization and environmental stewardship decades ahead of his time. Drawing vivid portraits of Cold War flashpoints, Myint‑U recasts U Thant’s legacy as a roadmap for principled multilateralism in an era of renewed great‑power rivalry.
In conversation with Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, Myint-U explored U Thant’s battles against white supremacy in southern Africa, the rise of newly independent Asian and African voices at the UN, and what U Thant’s diplomacy can teach today’s gridlocked Security Council.
The UN’s first non-Western secretary-general, a soft-spoken Buddhist from rural Burma, once stood between the superpowers and nuclear annihilation, yet his story is largely untold.
In Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World, historian Thant Myint‑U mines newly declassified archives to show how his grandfather U Thant steered the world through the Cuban Missile Crisis, mediated conflicts from the Congo to Kashmir, challenged Washington over Vietnam, and championed decolonization and environmental stewardship decades ahead of his time. Drawing vivid portraits of Cold War flashpoints, Myint‑U recasts U Thant’s legacy as a roadmap for principled multilateralism in an era of renewed great‑power rivalry.
In conversation with Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, Myint-U explored U Thant’s battles against white supremacy in southern Africa, the rise of newly independent Asian and African voices at the UN, and what U Thant’s diplomacy can teach today’s gridlocked Security Council.
