The United Nations was once run by a crypto-Nazi. That inconvenient truth is not exactly the principal message of the New York Times' farewell to Kurt Waldheim. The Times obituary of Kurt Waldheim defies belief. It delivers a one-two punch, soft-peddling the record of this Nazi officer who hid his disgraceful past.Early in the piece (5 paragraphs down in a full-page obituary), It exonerates Waldheim  of actual technical war crimes:"Kurt Waldheim did not, in fact, order, incite or personally commit what is commonly called a war crime," wrote Prof. Robert Edwin Herzstein of the University of South Carolina, a historian whose archival research was crucial in uncovering Mr. Waldheim's Nazi past. "But this non-guilt must not be confused with innocence. The fact that Waldheim played a significant role in military units that unquestionably committed war crimes makes him at the very least morally complicit in those crimes."All true to be sure. But this is only to...(Read Full Post)