Arnold and Waldheim - So What?

http://slate.msn.com/id/2086742/

Arnold's Nazi Problem
Why won't he repudiate Kurt Waldheim?
By Timothy Noah
Posted Thursday, August 7, 2003, at 3:46 PM PT

A slight Waldheim problem

Here's a question Jay Leno forgot to ask Arnold Schwarzenegger when he announced his candidacy for governor of California on last night's Tonight Show: "Will you renounce your support for Kurt Waldheim?"

A little refresher course may be in order. Kurt Waldheim, a widely esteemed former secretary general of the United Nations, was running for president of Austria in March 1986 when it came to light that he had participated in Nazi atrocities during World War II. Waldheim had always maintained that he had served in the Wehrmacht only briefly and that after being wounded early in the war, he had returned to Vienna to attend law school. In fact, Waldheim had resumed military service after recuperating from his injury and had been an intelligence officer in Germany's Army Group E when it committed mass murder in the Kozara region of western Bosnia. (Waldheim's name appears on the Wehrmacht's "honor list" of those responsible for the atrocity.) In 1944, Waldheim had reviewed and approved a packet of anti-Semitic propaganda leaflets to be dropped behind Russian lines, one of which ended, "enough of the Jewish war, kill the Jews, come over." After the war, Waldheim was wanted for war crimes by the War Crimes Commission of the United Nations, the very organization he would later head. None of these revelations prevented Waldheim from winning the Austrian election, but after he became president, the U.S. Justice Department put Waldheim on its watch list denying entry to "any foreign national who assisted or otherwise participated in activities amounting to persecution during World War II." The international community largely shunned Waldheim, and he didn't run for re-election. (This information comes from the1992 book Betrayal: The Untold Story of the Kurt Waldheim Investigation and Cover-Up, by Eli M. Rosenbaum and William Hoffer.)


One month after these revelations began to splash across the front pages of newspapers worldwide, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver held their wedding reception* at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass. Schwarzenegger, a native of Austria, had invited Waldheim to the wedding, which of course can't be held against him because the invitations surely went out well before the war crimes story broke. (Schwarzenegger, who held dual citizenship in Austria and the United States, had also endorsed Waldheim.) Waldheim didn't attend, but he sent a gift¡Xa statue of Arnold, in lederhosen, bearing off Maria, who wore a dirndl. Admiring it, Schwarzenegger offered a tribute that stunned the assemblage into shocked silence (this is reported in Arnold: An Unauthorized Biography, by Wendy Leigh):

My friends don't want me to mention Kurt's name, because of all the recent Nazi stuff and the U.N. controversy, but I love him and Maria does too, and so thank you, Kurt.

Schwarzenegger's name remained on Waldheim's campaign posters. After Waldheim was elected, Schwarzenegger paid him a visit and was photographed with him. According to the New York Post's "Page Six" gossip column, Schwarzenegger was seen sitting beside Waldheim as recently as 1998, when the two attended the second inauguration of Waldheim's successor as president, Thomas Klestil.

In 1988, Schwarzenegger was asked in a Playboy interview what he thought of Waldheim. He replied:

I hate to talk about it, because it's a no-win situation. Without going into details, I can say that being half-Austrian and half-American, I don't like the idea that these two countries that mean so much to me are in such a disagreement. Austria is a very important place for Americans, because it is a neutral country. With a little bit of good will, the problem will be straightened out. I think it's well on the way.

Why on Earth didn't Schwarzenegger take this opportunity to speak out against Waldheim? It surely isn't because Schwarzenegger himself had any Nazi sympathies (though during the filming of the documentary Pumping Iron, he reportedly once made a foolish comment praising Hitler). Rather, Schwarzenegger was likely playing politics¡Xto be more specific, Austrian politics and family politics. For years it was rumored that if Schwarzenegger didn't run for governor of California, he would run for president of Austria. Because Austrians have long resented what they see as Waldheim's pointless scapegoating, any firm denunciation would have ruled the latter possibility out. In addition, Schwarzenegger's mother had for many years lived with Alfred Gerstl, a prominent Austrian politician who rose to the top post in the upper house of Austria's parliament. Schwarzenegger reportedly addressed him as "Uncle." (Schwarzenegger's father, who died three decades ago, was a police official who had belonged to the Nazi party.)

Rather than confront his Waldheim problem head-on, Schwarzenegger has proclaimed his disgust for Nazism, raised money for education about the Holocaust, traveled to Israel (where he met with then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin), and given generously to the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which in 1997 bestowed on him its National Leadership Award. "He wants no truck with ¡K Waldheim," the Wiesenthal Center's Rabbi Marvin Hier told the Jerusalem Post. "He probably did not have any clue as to the seriousness of the allegations against Waldheim at that time [i.e., 1986]. To suggest that Arnold's an anti-Semite is preposterous. He's done more to further the cause of Holocaust awareness than almost any other Hollywood star."

Clearly, though, that won't be enough. If Schwarzenegger doesn't renounce Waldheim in a highly public way, he can forget about ever becoming governor of California.

 

I'm so sick of these Jewish organisations pursuing former Nazis to the ends of the Earth.

Even for someone like Kurt Waldheim, who had devoted nearly the entirety of his later life to world peace, they show no mercy. And even after he's dead, they refuse to let anyone maintain any sort of association with him.

To me, this is nothing more than a spiteful race bent on the public disgrace and revenge against their former persecutors. This is no longer about morality or justice, but simply hate.

I do not find any evidence of anti-semitism in the last 40 years of Waldheim's life. In fact, I scarcely see any evidence before that. He persecuted Yugoslav partisans during the war, much like America persecutes the Taliban today. Is that so great a sin? The most evidence these Jewish organisations can summon is his approval on a few anti-semitic propaganda posters! To cite the Israeli govt.:

By this definition, all Jews would be "guilty" for the death of Jesus. And by the same standard Jews today should never be forgiven either, since they have never publically repudiated their forefathers. Is that a definition of right vs. wrong which appeals to you?

I see Waldheim as a man devoted to Austria and the world. And yet these "judges" in the media apparently refuse to allow for people to change, nor do they know any forgiveness.

If I were Arnold, I'd stand by Waldheim too. Whether Waldheim publically repented for his deeds during the war, he more than made up for his sins by his post-war actions. Furthermore, Waldheim apparently was Arnold's good friend.

In my culture, betraying a friend in public is far worse a sin than associating with the wrong man to begin with. You can advise him on right and wrong in private, and walk away if he doesn't listen. But once a friend, always a friend. And friends do not backstab friends.

I hope Arnold wins California by a landslide and shove that stupid age-old "Shoah this and Shoah that" bull**** back down those haters throats.

 

A bit about Waldheim

Kurt Waldheim was appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations for a five-year term beginning on January 1, 1972. He replaced U. Thant. The Security Council had recommended the appointment on December 21, 1971 and the General Assembly approved it by acclamation on the following day.

Mr. Waldheim joined the Austrian diplomatic service in 1945, and from 1948 to 1951 he served as First Secretary of the Legation in Paris. He was head of the personnel department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Vienna from 1951 to 1955 In 1955 he was appointed Permanent Observer for Austria to the United Nations and later that year became head of the Austrian Mission when Austria was admitted to the Organization.

From 1956 to 1960, Mr. Waldheim represented Austria in Canada, first as Minister Plenipotentiary and later as Ambassador. From 1960 to 1962 he was head of the Political Department (West) in the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, subsequently becoming Director-General for Political Affairs until June 1964.

From 1964 to 1968, Mr. Waldheim was Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations. During that period he was Chairman of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space; in 1968 he was elected President of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

From January 1968 to April 1970, Mr. Waldheim was Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Austria. After leaving the Government, he was unanimously elected Chairman of the Safeguards Committee of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and in October 1970 he again became the Austrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, a post he held until he was elected Secretary-General of the Organization.

In April 1971, he was one of the two candidates for the Federal Presidency of Austria.

During his first three years as Secretary-General, Mr. Waldheim made it a practice to visit areas of special concern to the United Nations. In March 1972 he traveled to South Africa and Namibia in pursuance of a mandate given him by the Security Council in order to assist in finding a satisfactory solution for the problem of Namibia.

The Secretary-General paid three visits to Cyprus, in June 1972, August 1973 and August 1974, for discussions with government leaders and to inspect the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in the island. During his visit in August 1974, in the wake of the hostilities, Mr. Waldheim arranged for talks to begin between Acting President Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash.

The Secretary-General also made a number of trips to the Middle East in the continuing search for peace in the area. In August 1973 he visited Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and Jordan; in June 1974 he met with the leaders of Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan and Egypt; and in November 1974 he went to Syria, Israel and Egypt in connection with the extension of the mandate of United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). On these visits he also inspected the United Nations peace-keeping operations in the area - the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) and UNDOF.

In February 1973, during an official trip to the subcontinent, the Secretary-General discussed with the Governments of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh the problems created by the war between India and Pakistan and ways and means to overcome its consequences. He also inspected the United Nations Relief Operation in Bangladesh, the largest relief operation ever undertaken under United Nations auspices.

In February and March 1974, the Secretary-General visited a number of countries in the Sudano-Sahelian area of Africa where the United Nations had undertaken a major relief operation to assist the victims of a prolonged drought.

The Secretary-General also opened and addressed a number of major international conferences convened under United Nations auspices. These include the third session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Santiago, April 1972), the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, June 1972), the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (Caracas, June 1974), the World Population Conference (Bucharest, August 1974) and the World Food Conference (Rome, November 1974).

He addressed and attended meetings of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Rabat (June 1972 on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the OAU, in Addis Ababa (May 1973) and in Mogadiscio (June 1974). He also addressed the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington (March 1972).

In February 1973, the Secretary-General took part in the Paris International Conference on Viet-Nam; in December of the same year he presided over the first phase of the Geneva Peace Conference on the Middle East.

Waldheim was a second five-year term in 1976 and tried for an unprecedented third term in 1981. China vetoed his candidacy through 16 rounds of voting before Waldheim withdrew.

Kurt Waldheim was elected president of Austria in 1986 despite charges, investigated and later cleared by an independent commission, that he had lied about the extent of his complicity in Nazi war crimes while he was a lieutenant in the German army during World War II.

==========================
Below excerpted about his work at the U.N.
==========================
In his 1977 UN Annual Report, in noting "increasing frustration and disappointment at the failure to protect and promote human rights in various parts of the world..." he reminds us that "...it must be remembered that the existing machinery such as the Commission on Human Rights is intergovernment and intergovernmental bodies of course reflect the position of Member-States." Unfortunately his conclusions are vividly and tragically known to millions of victims of war, deprivation and torture: "Thus we continue to have a conflict between the individual asserted principles of national sovereignty and the broad commitment to human rights."
===========================
The failure of the United Nations is nowhere more nakedly revealed than in the problem of disarmament. Since General Assembly Resolution 41(1) of 14 December 1946 to Resolution 31/72 of 10 December 1976, spanning 32 years of lip-service to the problem, general world disarmament has been grotesquely and disastrously mocked by 94 international wars, over $6 trillion of the world's tax-players' money spent on destruction, over 50 million killed and many more crippled, made homeless and refugeed, a 1977 global armament budget of over $300 billion-- almost 8% of the world's gross national product when endemic poverty is the daily grim condition of hundreds of millions-- and an overkill capacity hundreds of times over. "Stocks of nuclear weapons," writes Dr. Waldheim, "have already been sufficient to destroy the world many times over, and yet the number of warheads has increased five-fold in the past eight years." Not only does the Secretary-General recognize the universality of the problem-- "...In a period where a new form of world society symbolized by the United Nations, is emerging, (disarmament is) a problem which vitally affects them all (the majority of the medium and small Powers)"-- but that all nations "should play an important part in a comprehensive approach to disarmament aimed at real disarmament in the context of world order."
================================

IS THIS THE WORK OF AN EVIL MAN???

 

put in another way.

if you found out today that Mother Teresa was a Nazi youth and serial murderer in her youth, would you forgive her?

i know our hate for Osama is quite fresh. But after some thought, I'd say yes, I forgive both of them.

I admittedly, don't hate Osama very much to begin with. I, like many around the world, simply don't find his actions so terribly shocking or evil. And yes, I am an American.

 

and you?

i would've assumed that since you used osama as an example you imply that you won't forgive. but that wouldn't be fair...

i know you're a good thinker, and would really like to hear your take on it.

 

what do i think of Osama?

Take your typical Palestinian suicide bomber.

Give him 100 times his intelligence.
1 million times his money.
and 1000 times his capabilities.

Trace his grievance to its source.

And you have Osama bombing America.

=================

Frightening? Yes.
Destructive? Yes.
Cruel? Yes.

But shocking? No. It is simply cause and effect. With America's screwed-up foreign policy, it was only a matter of time.

If you find the Twin Towers shocking, wait until N. Korea or the next big terrorist drops a nuke on American cities... Are you going to be "shocked" every time?

To me, evil is unprovoked malice. There is nothing unprovoked here.

The same ignorance, ethnocentrism and hate blinded the Western world for centuries. And yet while you guys are facing the very same demons that created Hitler and Osama, you appear to be no wiser.

I don't claim to be a saint. I just call 'em like I see 'em.