Kurt Waldheim, a soft-spoken teacher's son, rose from the poverty of post-World War I Europe to become the world's chief diplomat and a political force in his native Austria.
But at the age of 67, in the midst of his quest for the presidency of Austria, the former U.N. secretary-general suddenly found himself defending his reputation against accusations of involvement in Nazi war crimes.
Seemingly overnight, Waldheim became a symbol and a painful reminder of a wartime generation caught up in Nazi Germany's military adventures.
Waldheim maintained he worked as a simple translator for Hitler's army during World War II.
But the New York-based World Jewish Congress said the young lieutenant's military unit killed innocent civilians in the Balkans and shipped more than 40,000 Greek Jews to death camps.
The Jewish organization produced documents and pictures showing Waldheim was in the unit, prompting several foreign governments to launch investigations into his past.
Suspicion also was raised when Waldheim denied he ever was a member of Nazi organizations, despite documents indicating otherwise, and wrongly claimed he was studying law in Vienna during the time he was still in the German Army. But Waldheim maintained the charges were drummed up to thwart his presidential election and would fade after the balloting.
The U.S. Justice Department recommended to the Reagan administration that Waldheim be prohibited from entering the United States under a 1978 law barring anyone who was involved in Nazi atrocities.
Israeli Justice Minister Yitzhak Modai said enough evidence existed to accuse Waldheim of being at least an accessory to war crimes.
And in London, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government investigated Waldheim's alleged connection with the execution of British army commandos captured by the Nazis in 1944.
The tall, slender man once known as 'the diplomat's diplomat' remained popular in Austria, but he was on trial in the minds of the outside world. He had come a long way.
Waldheim was born Dec. 21, 1918, at Sankt Andrae-Woerden, near Vienna, to a middle-class teacher and his wife who saw their world crumble with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Waldheim vividly recalls that his family nearly starved following World War I and that he and his wife, Cissy, lived through the same nightmare at the end of World War II.
Since the age of 15, he wanted to be a diplomat and he dismissed his father's wish that he become a doctor with the statement, 'I cannot (stand to) see blood.'
With intense determination, he quickly rose through the ranks of Austria's Foreign Service and became ambassador to Canada and, in 1968, Austrian foreign minister.
Waldheim reached the pinnacle of his diplomatic career when he was elected to the post of secretary-general of the United Nations -- a job he held until 1982.
From his plush 38th-floor office suite in the U.N. building in New York, Waldheim for 10 years played the world's No. 1 peacemaker and 'diplomatic broker,' once narrowly escaping from an enraged mob in Tehran as he tried to free 52 American hostages.
Waldheim looked and acted every bit the part. In his dark three-piece suit, the slender 6-foot-3 Austrian was the image of the old-school diplomat. He visited 114 countries during his U.N. tenure.
But when Waldheim first announced he was a candidate for the presidency of Austria last autumn, rumors began circulating in Vienna about his shadowy war past.
An Austrian reporter found records indicating Waldheim had been a member of some Nazi organizations -- not unusual for someone who wanted to live through Hitler's war. But Waldheim surprised the reporter -- and aroused his suspicions -- by denying it.
'Waldheim is his own worst enemy,' the reporter said. 'His evasiveness always gave the impression he had something worse to hide.'
Waldheim was forced to admit he wrongly claimed to have been studying law in Vienna once his war record disclosed he actually served in the German Army in the Balkans from 1942-45.
But the World Jewish Congress charges went deeper than that. The organization said it had documented proof he served on the staff of Wehrmacht Gen. Alexander Loehr in Salonika, Greece, in 1938.
Loehr was hanged as a Nazi war criminal for directing the deportation of nearly 43,000 Greek Jews to Auschwitz and two other death camps.
Waldheim also was accused of having direct knowledge of the Nazi's Balkan campaign to carry out reprisals against civilians for partisan attacks on German troops.
He dismissed the allegations as 'all nonsense' brought about by the Austrianpresidential campaign.
'For 40 years nobody found it necessary to make such accusations,' Waldheim said. 'My political background is absolutely clear.'
Waldheim maintains the accusations of Nazi war crimes will disappear once the election fades into memory -- reasoning that even his supporters find difficult to accept.
