(1909–74), Burmese statesman and secretary-general (1961–71) of the United Nations.

Born on Jan. 22, 1909, in Pantanaw, Burma (now Myanmar), Thant was educated at the University of Rangoon (now Yangon), after which he was senior master (1928–31) and headmaster (1931–47) of Pantanaw National High School. In 1947, after the Burmese constituent assembly voted for independence from Great Britain, Thant became press director of the interim government. Following the establishment of an independent Burma (1948) led by his longtime friend and colleague, Prime Minister U Nu, Thant held the posts of director of broadcasting (1948–49), secretary in the ministry of information (1949–53), and secretary to the prime minister (1953–57). In 1952 he was also a member of the Burmese delegation to the UN; he became his country's permanent UN representative in 1957. Following the death of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in September 1961, Thant was elected to complete Hammarskjöld's term; he was reelected to a full 5-year term in 1966.

During his years of leadership in the UN, Thant won admiration for his skill as a patient and subtle negotiator. He concluded the UN operation in the Congo, in which Hammarskjöld had lost his life; mediated crises in Cyprus, the Indonesian province of West Irian (now Papua), and the disputed territory of Kashmir; and helped avert a nuclear confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the Cuban missile crisis. He failed in his efforts to bring peace to Vietnam, however, and his criticism of U.S. military involvement there strained relations with the U.S. government. Thant was criticized for acceding to Egypt's request in 1967 to withdraw UN Emergency Force peacekeepers, a decision that contributed to the outbreak of the Six-Day War.

In declining health, Thant announced in January 1971 that he would not seek a third term. He retired when his second term expired in December and was succeeded by Kurt Waldheim of Austria. He died Nov. 25, 1974, in New York City. His funeral and burial in Burma triggered mass demonstrations by students and other protesters, which were violently suppressed by the military regime that had deposed U Nu 12 years earlier.