Show notes
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thant Myint-U talks about his new book Peacemaker: U Thant, the United Nations and the Untold Story of the 1960s. It tells the story of his grandfather U Thant, the Burmese schoolteacher turned UN Secretary-General who guided the United Nations through some of the most dangerous crises of the 1960s, yet is now woefully forgotten or badly misremembered.Thant explains: U Thant’s forgotten role as UN Secretary-General during the great crises of the 1960s His sociability, humour, directness, and moral imagination How Buddhism shaped U Thant’s approach to crisis How newly independent post-colonial states tried to remake the world order Burma/Myanmar after empire: colonial destruction, weak institutions, and postcolonial state-building The Non-Aligned Movement: Afro-Asian internationalism beyond the US–Soviet Cold War Congo, Katanga and sovereignty: U Thant’s defence of postcolonial borders against neo-imperial fragmentation The Cuban Missile Crisis: U Thant’s overlooked role in helping Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro de-escalate Vietnam and the lost peace channel: U Thant’s ignored 1964 attempt to open talks with Ho Chi Minh The Six-Day War and the UN-Israel rupture: UNEF, Nasser, Israel, and the myth that the UN abandoned Israel U Thant’s late one-world vision, the decline of Bandung idealism, and the lost promise of postcolonial internationalismJoin the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Visit Thant’s website: thantmyintu.comFind us on X: https://x.com/MHconflictedAnd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflictedAnd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpodLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesConflicted is a Message Heard production.Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.Produced and edited by Thomas Small.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
