Friday, April 19, 2024
Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor
A Personal Recollection

JUNE 19, 2007 --

The death of Kurt Waldheim, June 14, calls to mind a letter that I wrote to Waldheim during his 1986 candidacy for president of Austria.

Some months later I received a response from Mr. Waldheim, by that time president of Austria.

My letter had suggested he inform The New York Times about his opposition to the United Nations General
Assembly the resolution denouncing Zionism as a form of racism.

This infamous resolution -- No. 3379 --
was approved while Waldheim was Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The letter to me stated in general terms Waldheim's efforts opposing the anti-Israel resolution and added that I could inform The New York Times of this reply.

As I recall, I sent a copy of the Waldheim letter to a Times editor.

Some time later, the Times ran a page
one article (albeit below the fold) on the Austrian President and former UN Secretary General.

If memory serves, the Times article
suggested that President Waldheim had become isolated in the international community on revelations about his service in the German Army in World War II.

Lacking direct knowledge, I always had the sense that the Waldheim letter to me prompted the Waldheim article --a Times editor having concluded that
Waldheim had become so discredited he had not much to do but write to people like Zukerman, in The Bronx.