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
United Nations Secretary-General selection unhappy with Hammarskjöld's handling of the Congo Crisis, which broke out in 1960. The Soviets pushed him to resign, suggesting that the Secretary-General be replaced by a troika, or three-man executive. The Western nations opposed this move, and the Soviets dropped the idea. Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in 1961. Hammarskjöld's death created a succession crisis at the United Nations, as the UN Charter had no provision for succession to the office of Secretary-General. The Soviet Union pushed for a troika, while the United States and the United Kingdom came up with a