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
1953 United Nations Secretary-General selection accept the other's candidate, they compromised on Trygve Lie of Norway, who became the first Secretary-General of the United Nations. In the late 1940s, international tensions affected the workings of the United Nations. Norway joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949, placing the post of Secretary-General in the hands of a country that was aligned with one side in the Cold War. Lie took the United Nations into the Korean War in 1950, leading the Soviet Union to veto his re-selection in 1950. The United States then announced that it would veto every other candidate. With the Security Council