Kurt Waldheim, who died on Thursday at the age of 88, reached the top in his native Austria, where he became president, and also in the United Nations, where he rose to be secretary-general.

Many would say that at the UN from 1971 to l981 he achieved little, hampered by the east-west confrontation. In the Austrian presidency he was seen as a lame duck after mishandling charges impugning his wartime record. He remained a symbol of Austria’s difficulty in accepting responsibility for Nazi war crimes.