Three candidates received enough votes in the Security Council to be selected Secretary-General: Carlos Ortiz de Rozas of Argentina, Kurt Waldheim of Austria, and Max Jakobson of Finland.

In the third round, Waldheim accidentally escaped a triple-veto when three permanent members failed to coordinate their votes and all abstained.

The Soviet Union, France, and Third World countries wanted to draft Thant for at least one more year in office,[2][3] as he had been strongly opposed to apartheid and colonialism.

[9] However, the Arab countries and the Soviet Union expressed their belief that he would be subject to Zionist pressure because of his Jewish ancestry.

[11] After losing the Austrian presidential election to the incumbent Franz Jonas in April 1971,[15] Waldheim turned his efforts to the U.N. Secretary-Generalship.

[13] Felipe Herrera of Chile picked up support late in the race as Latin American countries united behind his candidacy.

Although Herrera had been nominated by the leftist Allende government, even Argentina's military junta committed to support him as the Latin American candidate.

[20] However, the United States opposed any candidate nominated by the Allende government and felt that Herrera was "a poor manager to boot".

[20] On 20 October 1971, the United States instructed its ambassadors to tell Latin American Foreign Ministers, "in deep confidence," that the U.S. could not support a Chilean candidate.

Although the vote had fallen short of the two-thirds required to take effect, supporters of Communist China were confident of victory in 1971.

The Chinese veto was placed in the hands of Communist China, a Third World country that was not aligned with either the United States or the Soviet Union.

Although Jakobson had been presumed the frontrunner for the past 11 months,[7] Kurt Waldheim was the only candidate to win the required 9-vote majority.

[30] On 21 December 1971, the U.S. and British delegations received instructions from their governments to prevent Kurt Waldheim from being selected in that day's voting.

During a dinner at Waldheim's house, Soviet ambassador Yakov Malik proposed a toast to the host, "May all your wishes come true.

Although Finland sought the support of the other Scandinavian countries,[11] Swedish diplomat Gunnar Jarring was also nominated and became the only candidate to receive no vetoes in the first round.

[29] Jakobson was Jewish and drew opposition from the Arab countries,[3] but Jarring had been the U.N. Special Representative in the Middle East and tried to arrange an Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai.

Bush felt that Norwegian ambassador Ole Ålgård had "proven to be most accurate forecaster of PRC positions".

[32] In addition to getting the Chinese position wrong, Finland had also claimed that the Soviet Union would not veto Jakobson,[13] and Sweden would withdraw Jarring.