Kurt Waldheim on Asian Peoples 
On October 16, 1980, the American 
Museum of Natural History cele- 
brated the opening of the new Gardner 
D. Stout Hall of Asian Peoples. Fol- 
lowing an introductory speech and 
presentation by Museum president 
Robert G. Goelet, Kurt Waldheim, 
secretary-general of the United Na- 
tions, gave a short address. We have 
reproduced his speech here in full. 
In it he outlines his view of the sig- 
nificance of the hall and what it sym- 
bolizes for world understanding and 
peace. 
New York is one of the great cul- 
tural centers of the world and, as the 
host city of the United Nations, a 
political center of international life as 
well. The Gardner D. Stout Hall of 
Asian Peoples at the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History makes a sig- 
nificant addition to the city’s resources 
for broadening the cultural awareness 
of its residents and visitors. 
I find it most appropriate that the 
theme of this exhibition should be the 
peoples of Asia. This lends it a special 
appeal and fascination. Of all con- 
tinents, Asia is not only the largest; 
it also contains a greater variety of 
ethnic groups, traditions, and lan- 
guages than any other. All of the great 
world religions originated in Asia. 
Some of the oldest civilizations flour- 
ished on that continent. In a broad 
sense, therefore, Asia represents more 
than Asia. Called the Mother of Civil- 
ization, it stands for a large part of 
the entire human heritage. 
Once we realize the value and mean- 
ing of this Asian part of our collective 
inheritance, we can hardly question 
the necessity of overcoming the great 
ignorance about Asian peoples that 
prevails not only in Europe, the Ameri- 
cas, and Africa but also, to some ex- 
tent, in Asia itself. Two facts of cul- 
tural history explain this ignorance. 
First, owing to Europe’s domination 
of the globe from the eighteenth to 
the middle of the twentieth century, 
Asians had perforce to learn much 
more about Europe and even the 
Americas than Europeans and Ameri- 
cans felt they needed to know about 
Asia. Secondly, Asia itself, which 
stretches from Turkey east to Japan 
and from Siberia south to Sri Lanka, 
is so large and multitudinous that, his- 
torically, those who lived in one part 
of it knew little about those living 
in another. The Hall of Asian Peoples 
can, therefore, offer as much edifi- 
cation to an Asian as to a non-Asian. 
May I now turn to the broad sig- 
nificance of cultural undertakings 
such as this exhibition. For the first 
time in history, the human race is 
coming to understand that it consti- 
tutes a single community and inhabits 
a world that is indivisible. All of us, 
of course, retain and take pride in 
our respective national and cultural 
identities. Over and above these af- 
filiations, however, we have all become 
citizens of one world. 
A certain amount of knowledge 
about the different peoples of the 
globe and their traditions should now 
be an essential part of the equipment 
for this citizenship. We now know 
more than ever before how human 
cultures have interacted and inter- 
penetrated throughout history. In 
older times, before modern commu- 
nications and the growth of a variety 
of academic disciplines, a person who 
studied two cultures would be ab- 
sorbed by their differences. Now, 
without losing sight of the specific 
features of each, we are equally fas- 
cinated by their points of resemblance. 
To detect the parallels — the elements 
of correspondence — between different 
societies is an invigorating exercise. 
More important than that, this ex- 
ercise serves to rid us of the influence 
of those myths of cultural superiority 
that give rise to ethnic prejudice and 
cultural arrogance. 
We may be unhappy about much 
in our world today, but here is one 
fact at least that signifies real, un- 
deniable progress: In our age there 
exists a far more sympathetic com- 
prehension of the world’s diverse so- 
cieties, a greater respect for cultures 
and peoples different from one’s own, 
than was ever the case before. This 
includes an interest in traditional ways 
of life unaffected by modern technol- 
ogy. Walls that separated cultures and 
inhibited their mutual understanding 
are steadily being dismantled. I feel 
that this broadening of sympathies, 
this liberation from prejudice, repre- 
sents a great accomplishment of hu- 
manity that will help to make its fu- 
ture brighter than its past. 
This is not only a moral and in- 
tellectual resource. It is a matter of 
great political consequence as well. 
This is apparent in numerous ways; 
I choose but one example. Let us com- 
pare the world of the United Nations 
with that of the colonial era. Colo- 
nialism was based on the assumption 
that civilization as such meant West- 
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