Secretary-General of the United Nations the appointee's national origin and to gender equality, although no woman has yet served as Secretary-General. The length of the term is discretionary, but all Secretaries-General since 1971 have been appointed to five-year terms. Every Secretary-General since 1961 has been re-selected for a second term, with the exception of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who was vetoed by the United States in the 1996 selection. There is a term limit of two full terms, established when China cast a record 16 vetoes against Kurt Waldheim's third term in the 1981 selection. No Secretary-General since 1981 has attempted to secure a third term. The
1961 United Nations Secretary-General selection Slim to carry out the duties of Secretary-General, while he would delegate his own duties to one of the Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly. However, Slim insisted that the General Assembly would not act until the candidates had first been submitted to the Security Council. Nathan Barnes of Liberia, as President of the Security Council, attempted to arrange for Great Power consultations on the topic. However, the Soviet Union refused to attend any meeting that included Ambassador Tsiang Tingfu of Nationalist China, on the grounds that the Chinese seat at the United Nations actually belonged to Communist China. After the