U Thant Institute 
U Thant
U Thant
U Thant
U Thant was the third Secretary-General of the United Nations and served from 1961 to 1971. He was chosen to head the world body following the death of the then Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold in an air crash in September 1961.
U Thant was appointed Burma’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador in 1957. As UN Ambassador, he was active in issues of decolonization and was the Chairman of the Afro-Asian Working Group on Algerian Independence. In 1959, he served as one of the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly's fourteenth session. In 1961, U Thant was Chairman of the United Nations Congo Conciliation Commission and Chairman of the Committee on a United Nations Capital Development Fund.