Dag Hjalmar Agné Carl Hammarskjöld

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Hammarskjöld, Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl (1905-61) statesman and diplomat, born in Jonkoping, Sweden. Hammarskjöld served as secretary general of the United Nations (1953-61), enhancing the prestige and power of that body during his tenure. He was influential in the resolution of the Suez Canal crisis (1956) and initiated peace moves in the Middle East (1957-58). Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash while on a peace mission to central Africa; he was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1961).

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The Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) served as the secretary general of the United Nations from 1953 until his death.

Dag Hammarskjöld played a leading role in expanding the operations of the United Nations (UN), most notably through the establishment of peace-keeping forces and through technical and economic assistance to poor and newly independent nations. He practiced "quiet diplomacy" to reduce conflict and to build an international civil service that could carry out functions necessary to maintain peace and promote welfare. His extraordinary intellectual brilliance and courage were widely admired.

Dag Hammarskjöld was born on July 19, 1905, in Jönköping into one of Sweden's oldest aristocratic families, with a long history of government service. Hammarskjöld spent most of his childhood in Uppsala, where his father served as provincial governor. He attended a private school and then entered the university in 1923. He received his law degree at Uppsala in 1930, and in 1934 he earned a doctorate in political economics at the University of Stockholm.

Expert in Economics

In 1930 Hammarskjöld was appointed secretary of the Royal Commission on Unemployment. He served next as secretary of the Central Bank. His economic expertise brought him the high post of undersecretary in the Ministry of Finance at the age of 31. Five years later he was named chairman of the Central Bank and also assumed the duties of commissioner and assistant undersecretary in the State Financial Office. In 1946 he transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an economic adviser. The next year he served as Swedish delegate to the Paris conference on economic recovery and later was responsible for Sweden's role in the Marshall Plan. He played a prominent role in establishing the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), serving as vice-chairman of its executive committee. In 1949 he was appointed undersecretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Two years later he was named a minister without portfolio in the Swedish Cabinet.

UN Secretary General

Hammarskjöld served as vice-chairman of the Swedish delegation to the General Assembly of the UN in 1952. The following year he became chairman of the delegation. In March 1953 Hammarskjöld received the recommendation of the Security Council to replace Trygve Lie as UN secretary general, and on April 7 the General Assembly adopted the recommendation. He took office 12 days later.

During his initial year at the UN, Hammarskjöld sought to streamline the operations of the Secretariat and to reduce the political interference of member states in Secretariat administration. He made it clear, however, that he felt the role of secretary general included serving as a trusted consultant to all sides in conflict and as a discreet channel of communications when normal diplomatic channels were inadequate. The practicality of this approach was proved in 1955, when Hammarskjöld successfully secured the release of 15 American fliers shot down over China and held by the Chinese.

Peace-keeping in the Middle East

Hammarskjöld's role as mediator became even more apparent in the 1956 Middle East crisis. In January he conferred with both President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Premier David Ben Gurion of Israel, and his quiet diplomacy kept the explosive situation temporarily in check. After the nationalization of the Suez Canal in late 1956 and the subsequent military invasion of Egypt by Israel, France, and England, Hammarskjöld led in getting these forces removed and the canal reopened. A crucial factor was the establishment of a United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF), though previously the UN had only sent observers to areas of strife. Within a matter of weeks Hammarskjöld was able to establish the force and arrange for its operation along the lines between Israel and Egypt.

In 1958 Hammarskjöld was reelected as secretary general. He increasingly turned his attention to the emerging nations of Asia and Africa. Asian leaders sought his personal advice and diplomatic help. Hammarskjöld's trip to 24 African nations in 1960 deeply impressed him with the need for the UN to give assistance to newly independent countries, particularly with problems of public administration, economic development, and social reform.

Conflagration in the Congo

In July 1960 the Security Council authorized Hammarskjöld to give military assistance to the newly independent Republic of the Congo in order to restore and maintain law and order. Hammarskjöld organized a military force composed of contingents contributed by various countries, excluding the major military powers. He felt that maintaining order in the troubled country was the greatest single task the UN faced. His efforts were severely criticized by the U.S.S.R. and nations in its sphere of influence.

In September 1961 Hammarskjöld traveled to the Congo at the invitation of the Congolese government to mediate between the various factions within the country. During his stay fighting broke out between secessionist forces in Katanga and the UN peace-keeping troops stationed there. In Léopoldville, Hammarskjöld conferred with the government, then flew to meet Moise Tshombe, leader of the Katanga secessionists. En route, on September 17 Hammarskjöld and 15 others were killed when their plane crashed in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). Hammarskjöld was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace posthumously in 1961.

The posthumous publication of Hammarskjöld's journal, Markings, revealed him as an intensely religious man, preoccupied with the spiritual problems of reconciling abstract ideals with human frailty.

Further Reading

Hammarskjöld revealed his literary and philosophical qualities in Markings (1964). The Light and the Rock:The Vision of Dag Hammarskjöld, (no date) edited by T. S. Settel, is a parallel volume of Hammarskjöld's statements that reflect his thoughts on many subjects. A helpful collection of Hammarskjöld's writings and speeches is Wilder Foote, The Servant of Peace:A Selection of Speeches and Statements of Dag Hammarskjöld (1962).

Among the many biographies and full-length portraits of Hammarskjöld are Joseph P. Lash, Dag Hammarskjöld:Custodian of the Brushfire Peace (1961); Sten Valdemar Söderberg, Dag Hammarskjöld:A Pictorial Biography (1962); Emery Kelen, Hammarskjöld (1966); Sven Stolpe, Dag Hammarskjöld:A Spiritual Portrait (trans. 1966); Charles May Simon, Dag Hammarskjöld (1967); Henry Pitney Van Dusen, Dag Hammarskjöld:The Statesman and His Faith (1967); Emery Kelen, ed., Hammarskjöld:The Political Man (1968); and Bo Beskow, Dag Hammarskjöld:Strictly Personal; A Portrait (1969). Gustaf Aulén, Dag Hammarskjöld's White Book:The Meaning of "Markings" (1969), is an investigation of the intellectual and theological background for Hammarskjöld's views recorded in his Markings. One of the most useful studies of Hammarskjöld's role in the UN is Marc W. Zacher, Dag Hammarskjöld's United Nations (1969).

Additional Sources

Hammarskjöld, Dag, Markings, Boston:G. K. Hall, 1976, 1964.

Urquhart, Brian., Hammarskjöld, New York:Harper & Row, 1984, 1972.

1905 - 1961

United Nations secretary-general, 1953 - 1961.

Born in Uppsala, Sweden, Dag Hammarskjöld was successively a professor of economics, permanent under-secretary of the Finance Ministry and chairman of the board of the Swedish National Bank, Swedish representative in negotiations on the Marshall Plan and on European institutions, and minister in the Swedish Foreign Office. Elected United Nations secretary-general in 1953, he revitalized the world organization.

Hammarskjöld's brilliant personal diplomacy was a new factor in international affairs. In 1955, in talks with Chou En-Lai, he secured the release of seventeen U.S. airmen imprisoned in China, resolving a serious potential threat to international peace. In 1956 he shored up the crumbling Arab - Israeli armistice agreements. In talks in New York he tried to resolve the crisis that followed Gamal Abdel Nasser's 1956 nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, an effort aborted by the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt.

Hammarskjöld persuaded the invaders to accept a cease-fire on the condition that a UN force arrive in the area immediately. The first UN peacekeeping force (UNEF I) arrived in the Suez Canal area eight days later. Early in 1957 UNEF replaced the Israelis in Sinai and Gaza.

Hammarskjöld's friendship with both Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion and Mahmud Fawzi, Nasser's foreign minister, facilitated his efforts. He failed however, to get Egypt to agree to navigation for Israeli ships or Israel-bound cargoes in the Suez Canal. In 1958 Hammarskjöld played a crucial role in containing, negotiating, and finally resolving the Lebanese crisis, during which, under mistaken premises, U.S. Marines landed in Beirut and British troops in Jordan.

In 1960 Hammarskjöld organized the UN's largest and most difficult peacekeeping operation in the newly independent and chaotic Congo. In the absence of directives from a paralyzed Security Council, his independent actions led to his rejection by both Nikita S. Khrushchev and Charles de Gaulle, who also furiously resented Hammarskjöld's visit to Tunisia when French forces violently re-occupied Bizerte in the summer of 1961.

Hammarskjöld died on 17 September 1961 while on a mission to end fighting in Katanga, when his aircraft crashed at Ndola, Northern Rhodesia.

Bibliography

Hammarskjöld, Dag. Markings, translated by Leif Sjöberg and W. H. Auden. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964.

Lash, Joseph P. Dag Hammarskjöld: Custodian of the BrushfirePeace. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961.

Urquhart, Brian. Hammarskjöld. New York: Knopf, 1972.

— BRIAN URQUHART

A Swedish diplomat of the twentieth century; the secretary-general of the United Nations from 1953 to 1961. Hammarskjöld was intensely involved with settling differences between nations that arose from the cold war and from the movement toward independence for African nations.

Quotes:

"We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours."

"I don't know Who -- or what -- put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone --or Something --and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal."

"Fatigue dulls the pain, but awakes enticing thoughts of death. So! that is the way in which you are tempted to overcome your loneliness -- by making the ultimate escape from life. -- No! It may be that death is to be your ultimate gift to life: it must not be an act of treachery against it."

"To forgive oneself? No, that doesn't work: we have to be forgiven. But we can only believe this is possible if we ourselves can forgive."

"Every deed and every relationship is surrounded by an atmosphere of silence. Friendship needs no words -- it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness."

"Friendship needs no words..."

See more famous quotes by Dag Hammarskjold