1981 United Nations Secretary-General selection Pérez de Cuéllar for a second term as Secretary-General. Although Pérez received only "hints" of financial support for the U.N., he felt obligated to accept his selection. "To decline in such circumstances would have been tantamount to abandoning a moral duty toward the United Nations," he said in his acceptance speech. 1981 United Nations Secretary-General selection A United Nations Secretary-General selection was held in 1981. Kurt Waldheim ran for an unprecedented third full term as Secretary-General, losing to Salim Ahmed Salim by one vote. However, the selection deadlocked through 16 rounds of voting as China vetoed Waldheim and the United
Secretary-General of the United Nations to the expectations of the membership and the new standard of openness and transparency". The official residence of the Secretary-General is a townhouse at 3 Sutton Place, Manhattan, in New York City, United States. The townhouse was built for Anne Morgan in 1921, and donated to the United Nations in 1972. This is a graphical lifespan timeline of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations. They are listed in order of office. <div style="overflow:auto"> As of 2019, the only former Secretaries-General that are alive are Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and Ban Ki-moon. The most recent death of a former Secretary-General was