Trygve Lie (16 July 1896-30 December 1968) was Secretary-General of the United Nations from 2 February 1946 to 10 November 1952, succeeding Gladwyn Jebb and preceding Dag Hammarskjold. He previously served as Foreign Minister of Norway from 19 November 1940 to 2 February 1946, succeeding Halvdan Koht and preceding Halvard Lange.
Biography[]
Trygve Lie was born in Kristiania, Sweden-Norway (now Oslo, Norway) in 1896, and he was a successful lawyer before joining the Norwegian Labor Party in 1919. He became its legal adviser and was elected to the Storting, and he served as Minister of Justice from 1935 to 1939, Minister of Supplies from 1939 to 1940, and Foreign Minister from 1940 to 1946, serving in the exiled Norwegian government in London during World War II. Owing to his internationalist convictions he was elected UN Secretary-General in 1946, and agian in 1950. Withinw eeks of presenting a twenty-year peace plan to the UN, he was faced with one of the organization's biggest challenges after World War II, the Korean War. He responded by organizing UN assistance for South Korea, leading to war. As a result, however, the Soviet Union refused him its support, so that he resigned in 1953. He returned to Norwegian politics as Minister of Industry from 1963 to 1964 and as Minister of Commerce from 1964 to 1965. He died in 1968.