Tuesday, Sep. 23, 2008
Disinviting Waldheim
During that year's Assembly meetings, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali refused to send an invitation for the U.N.'s 50th anniversary celebration to former Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim — who, it emerged in the mid-'80s, had been charged with murder by the War Crimes Commission for his role as an intelligence officer for the Nazis during World War II. To save face, Boutros-Ghali also disinvited Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, the only other former Secretary-General still alive. Pérez de Cuéllar graciously did not attend and said he understood.