Kurt Waldheim played a purely clerical role in those atrocities. He might as
well have been a typewriter for all the soul the job required. Just as
later, as secretary-general of the United Nations, he would stand by when
the General Assembly passed its infamous Zionism-Is-Racism resolution.
When the Israelis pulled off their daring rescue mission at Entebbe on July
4, 1976, saving a planeload of passengers who'd been hijacked to Idi Amin's
murderous domain, it was Secretary General Waldheim who objected that the
raid constituted "a serious violation of the national sovereignty of a
United Nations member nation."
Dr. Waldheim was always a stickler for procedure. The man was no hater; he
was a bureaucrat. Terrible things might be done by the Wehrmacht, or
approved by the UN, but he only worked there. He just saw to it that the
paperwork was in order. Whatever crimes he made possible, nobody ever
accused Kurt Waldheim of being less than professional.
Hannah Arendt, in her memorable study of Adolf Eichmann, had a term for this
depersonalized modern phenomenon: the banality of evil. Pre-20th century
hatred could be a messy, disorganized thing. Modern technology and
organization made it an industrial science.
A war criminal? Kurt Waldheim only signed things in his official capacity;
he never did them. Later he would always seem perplexed, and not a little
irritated, that some thought he should be held responsible for every little
scrap of paper he'd ever initialed. His accusers were looking for blood on
his hands and all they ever found was ink. He would die in bed. At 88.
What is to be said of Kurt Waldheim on his death? One might as well try to
judge a machine. And yet attention must be paid. Because large
organizations-armies, governments, corporations, international agencies-have
no conscience of their own. They must depend on individuals to supply it.
And when an individual with some administrative skill not only follows
orders, but refines and processes and initials them, making sure they will
prove highly effective, there is no limit to the evil that can be
accomplished. |