Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-11-04
BY SAUL PETIT
Associated Press Staff Writer

Associated Press Staff Writer
- With serenity that belied the
urgency of his words U Thant,
Acting Secretary General of the
United Nations, spoke out last
week in the storm over Cuba. He
appealed to the United States and
Russia for a temporary suspen-
qsion Of all action and count
aeraction on Cuba.
When Khrushchev agreed to
fdismantle and withdraw his missile
bases in Cuba. it was to Thant
both the United States and Russia
turned to oversee the withdrawal.
-Thant flew to Havana but ran
into stiff objection by Castro
against any foreign inspection on
Cuban soil. He returned to New
York with the issue still in doubt,
but one thing remained clear:
Thant was very much in the thick
of the dispute.
. At the height Of the worst
crisis Of the nuclear age, Thant
came before the Security Council,
appealed to both major powers to
Show restraint and said:
''If today the United Nations
Should prove ineffective it may
have proved itself so for all time"
No one doubted Thant's sin
cerity when he addressed the Sc
.cilrity Council. His words reflected
profound crisis and the edge of
doom but they were delivered with
anrspectacular lack of spectacle,
with the even tempo of a libra
rizn quietly checking off a new
inventory.
rasIn public or private stress-and
he has seen much of both the past
year-U Thant of Burma has
~ proved a man of remarkable con-
troll. He replaced Dag Hammar-
SKIOLD last year in a moment of
deep crisis. His term as Acting
Secretary General, which ex-
pires April 10, remains full of
profound conflict. But Thant to-
day is as unruffled as when he
began.
Symbol Of Harmony
E It was to this quiet, neat, dark
skinned man that the United Ma
tons turned last fall in the
gloom and confusion that fol-
i lowed Hammarskjold's death and
the Russian introduction Of the
Troika idea. When East and West
finally agreed on Thant for the
remainder Of Hammarskjold's
term, the Burmese was widely re-
garded as a powder-puff compro-
mise. The mood then seemed to be
to grab at any innocuous symbol
of harmony as long as the walls
didn't cave in.
The walls didn't cave in and the
powder puff turned out to
be made Of sterner stuff. He
quickly indicated that, like Ham
Anarskjold, he felt the role of sec
sTetary general should be one of
positive assertion, not merely that
Of q decorous sergeant-at-arns.
= 1t was this same concept of Wig
sbrous leadership which operated
last week when Thant stepped
INTO the Cuban crisis and tired
20 stay the hands of the two cold
war giants.
Like Hammarskjold, Thant has
worked for a strong policy in the
Congo, to buttress the Central
Government, to end the Katanga
Secession and to immunize the
Congo as a whole against the
Eiruses Of the cold war. This
policy at times has been criti-
eized in both the east and west.
Most outspoken
In many ways he has proven the
most outspoken Secretary Cen
serai the United Nations has had,
Sometimes to the regret of asso-
eiates at his 38th floor headquar-
3ers in the Secretariat Building.
He has proven a strong executive
and thus far, in the view of many
observers, has not been inhibited
by a quasi-cabinet of eight adj
Eisers.
s 1t was Russia which insisted last
3all that undersecretaries be APP
pointed to advise and aid the Sec
rotary general. Eight were chosen
from the United States, Russia,
Western Europe, Communist East
ern Europe, Asia, Africa. Latin
America and the Middle East.