For weeks the 158 member countries of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization had been locked in a battle over choosing a new leader. Senegal's Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, 66, was seeking his third six- year term as UNESCO director-general, despite complaints that his previous stints were characterized by profligate spending and anti-Western bias. The U.S. angrily withdrew from UNESCO in 1984, and Britain pulled out a year later. Last week the organization's executive board chose a compromise candidate, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, 53, a former Spanish Minister for Education and Science and onetime UNESCO deputy director.
Mayor's victory was assured when...