History tends to remember the loudest voices in the room. But sometimes the person who actually helped prevent disaster is the one sitting in the middle.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the world stood just hours away from nuclear war. Most of us remember the names Kennedy and Khrushchev. What we often forget is the man working behind the scenes at the United Nations, trying to slow things down before the world lost its mind. His name was U Thant.
This week on Here’s What We Know, we sit down with historian and author Thant Myint-U, who also happens to be U Thant’s grandson. His book Peacemaker tells the story of a schoolteacher from a small town in Burma who somehow found himself standing between the superpowers at one of the most dangerous moments in modern history.
We talk about the Cold War, the role of the United Nations, and what it was like for a grandson to discover the real scope of his grandfather’s life by digging through archives decades later.
This episode is a fascinating story about diplomacy, history, and the people who sometimes carry the biggest responsibility. Listen now!
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In This Episode:
- The Forgotten Peacemaker Behind the Cuban Missile Crisis
- Growing Up With the UN Secretary General
- When Did He Realize His Grandfather Was a Global Leader?
- Why U Thant Was Left Out of the Cuban Missile Crisis Story
- From Burmese Schoolteacher to UN Secretary General
- The Human Side of a World Leader
- Taking Over the UN During the Cold War
- Political Assassinations and Cold War Tensions
- The Golden Age of the United Nations
- Can the United Nations Still Prevent Global Conflict?
- The Power and Limits of the UN Security Council
- What the UN Was Originally Designed to Do
- The Decline of UN Peacekeeping Influence
- Why the UN Still Matters Today
- The Personality of U Thant: Calm, Pragmatic Leadership
Quotations:
“We don’t have that person who has listened to everyone and who can try to come up with formulas that might make sense in different situations.” – Thant Myint-U
“The ingredient that’s so important in that job is political courage. If you sit around waiting for what the big powers are going to agree on and tell you to do, you’re going to be sitting around waiting forever, and the war will be finished, and another million people will be dead.” – Thant Myint-U
Bio:
Thant Myint-U is a historian, author, and former United Nations official specializing in the history and politics of Myanmar and Southeast Asia. Educated at Harvard, Johns Hopkins SAIS, and Cambridge, he served on UN peacekeeping missions in Cambodia and the Balkans and later worked at the UN Secretariat in New York on humanitarian and political affairs. He has also advised Myanmar’s government on economic reform and peace negotiations and founded the Yangon Heritage Trust to preserve the city’s historic architecture.
Thant Myint-U is the author of several acclaimed books on Myanmar, including The River of Lost Footsteps and The Hidden History of Burma. His work has appeared in major publications such as The New York Times, Financial Times, and London Review of Books. He has been recognized as one of Foreign Policy’s “Leading Global Thinkers” and received numerous international honors for his contributions to scholarship and public service.
Guest Contact Info:
Website: https://www.thantmyintu.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thant-myint-u-340aa99/