Kurt Waldheim

In the winter of 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the rule of the Austrian Habsburgs signed an armistice with Italy, and the First World War finally ended in Austria. The despair of defeat enveloped the once-glorious Central European empire, and the Austrians were in dire conditions, and everyone could not see any hope of life for a while. In the small town of St. André Walton in Lower Austria on the Dnieper River, the primary school teacher Walter Waldheim had just survived the Italian front line, but he had to start worrying about the health of his newborn son. His son Kurt Joseph was born on December 21 of that year, just four days before Christmas. He was so skinny that the whole family worried about whether he would survive.

On December 21, 1971, exactly the day of Waldheim's birthday, 15 member states of the United Nations Security Council held a vote and recommended him as the Secretary-General of the United Nations with 11 votes in favor, 1 against, and 3 abstentions. While all this happened, the protagonist of the story stayed away from the scene and took a leisurely walk in New York's Central Park. As soon as he returned to the Austrian delegation, he learned from a beaming young colleague that the Security Council had just made a decision. On a sunny morning in January 1972, Waldheim entered the 38th floor of New York's skyscraper that housed the political and organizational heart of the United Nations with a new mission for the first time. The room at the end of the corridor was quietly waiting for him, where he would start a completely new job and spend the next decade of his career as Secretary-General of the United Nations.

On January 27, 1982, he was awarded the "United Nations Peace Award". However, due to its controversial "World War II background", it has repeatedly become the focus of Western public opinion.