Kurt Waldheim, ex-chief of U.N., tarnished by past

VIENNA, Austria - Former U.N. chief Kurt Waldheim, 88, who was barred from the United States for two decades after revelations that he belonged to a German army unit that committed World War II atrocities, died yesterday in Vienna. He was hospitalized late last month with an infection and a high fever.

Although it was never proved that he personally committed war crimes, he left public life beneath a cloud of disgrace and died with his name still on a watch list prohibiting foreigners considered undesirables from visiting the United States.

Mr. Waldheim's legacy as U.N. secretary-general from 1972-81 - and his tenure as Austrian president from 1986-92 - was tarnished by his secretive wartime past in the Balkans.

The details did not become common knowledge until five years after he left the world body. But the revelations led to a bruising controversy at home, one that ultimately damaged Austria's reputation. During Mr. Waldheim's six-year term as president, the country was largely shunned by foreign leaders.

His backers saw him as an innocent victim of a smear campaign, while opponents clamored for his resignation.

His past began surfacing early in his campaign for president, when he published a memoir that did not mention his service for the Nazis. In his official biographies, Mr. Waldheim initially said he had been wounded at the Russian front in 1941 and had returned to Austria to continue his studies. After being confronted with documents showing his unit had killed partisans and civilians, along with allegations that the victims included thousands of children, Mr. Waldheim gradually revised his official resume.

He consistently maintained his innocence, defending himself against disclosures made by his main accuser, the World Jewish Congress, and by foreign media. The World Jewish Congress published supporting documents, some of which bore Mr. Waldheim's signature or initials. But he insisted that his job was merely to verify their authenticity, not to act on the information or give orders.

As pressure mounted from all sides, Yugoslav newspapers published a facsimile of a 1947 document showing his name on a list of officers who took part in the infamous Mount Kozara operation. According to some Yugoslav versions, 68,000 people - including 23,000 children - died in the offensive.

His initial denials of serving with Hitler's Wehrmacht - and then assertions that he and fellow Austrians were only doing their duty - led to international censure.

In April 1987, the Justice Department put Mr. Waldheim on the list prohibiting him from entering the United States, an embarrassment no other Austrian public figure had ever experienced.

The following February, a U.S. government-appointed international commission of six historians investigating his wartime service said it found no proof that Mr. Waldheim himself committed war crimes. But it made clear his record was far from unblemished: The panel declared that Mr. Waldheim was in "direct proximity to criminal actions." Its report said Mr. Waldheim knew about German army atrocities in the Balkans and took no action to prevent or oppose them.

At the United Nations yesterday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon learned "with sadness" of Mr. Waldheim's death, noting that he served there "at a crucial period in the history of the organization."

Born Dec. 21, 1918, in St. Andrae, northwest of Vienna, Mr. Waldheim studied law at Vienna University and attended the Consular Academy, the nation's top diplomatic school. After the war, he entered the diplomatic service. In 1948, he was named first secretary of the Austrian Embassy in Paris.

From 1951 to 1955, he returned to the Foreign Ministry, and spent the next two years as Austria's observer to the United Nations. From 1964 to 1968, he was Austria's representative to the United Nations. He then became foreign minister, a post he held for the next two years. After starting another term as U.N. representative, he lost a 1971 bid for the presidency of Austria. He retired in 1992, never again to assume a public role outside of Austria.

He is survived by his wife, Elisabeth, whom he married in 1944, and their three children.