Dag Hammarskjold (29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 10 April 1953 to 18 September 1961, succeeding Trygve Lie and preceding U Thant. Hammarskjold won a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize after being killed in a plane crash in Zambia, and John F. Kennedy called him one of the greatest statesmen of the century.
Biography[]
Dag Hammarskjold was born in Jonkoping, Sweden on 29 July 1905 to a noble family, and he was the son of Prime Minister Hjalmar Hammarskjold. Hammarskjold studied at Uppsala University before serving on unemployment committees, and he headed the cental Riksbank from 1935 to 1941. From 1936 to 1945, he served in the Ministry of Finance, and he also served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1949 to 1951 and as a Minister without Portfolio from 1951 to 1953.
UN Secretary-General[]
Hammarskjold on a plane, September 1961
In 1953, Hammarskjold - a prominent technocrat without political views - was chosen as the black horse candidate for the new Secretary-General of the United Nations, succeeding Trygve Lie. Hammarskjold oversaw attempts to smooth relations between Israel and the Arab World, a successful effort to convince China to release 11 captured US Air Force pilots after the end of the Korean War, and the United Nations' intervention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the Congo Crisis of 1960. Hammarskjold supported non-interventionism instead of actively supporting the government of Congo-Leopoldville, and Hammarskjold refused to fight against the Belgian-backed separatist states of Katanga and South Kasai. On 18 September 1961, Hammarskjold was killed in a plane crash over Ndola, Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now Zambia), and U Thant succeeded him as UN Secretary-General. John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States, claimed that Hammarskjold was one of the greatest statesmen of the century, and he won a Nobel Peace Prize posthumously.