7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

authoritarian Jiang Zemin, to whom Deng yielded his

chairmanship of the Military Commission in 1989. Though

now lacking any formal post in the Communist leadership,

Deng retained ultimate authority in the party. Although

his direct involvement in government declined in the

1990s, he retained his influence until his death in 1997.

Deng restored China to domestic stability and eco-

nomic growth after the disastrous excesses of the Cultural

Revolution. Under his leadership, China acquired a rap-

idly growing economy, rising standards of living,

considerably expanded personal and cultural freedoms,

and growing ties to the world economy. Deng also left in

place a mildly authoritarian government that remained

committed to the CCP’s one-party rule, even while it

relied on free-market mechanisms to transform China

into a developed nation.

Dag Hammarskjöld

(b. July 29, 1905, Jönköping, Sweden—d. Sept. 18, 1961, near Ndola,

Northern Rhodesia [now Zambia])

D

ag Hammarskjöld was a Swedish economist and

statesman who served as second secretary-general of

the United Nations from 1953 to 1961 and enhanced its

prestige and effectiveness. He was posthumously awarded

the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961.

The son of Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, prime minister of

Sweden (1914–17) and chairman of the Nobel Prize Foun-

dation (1929 –47), Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld

studied law and economics at the universities of Uppsala

and Stockholm and taught political economy at Stockholm

(1933–36). He then joined the Swedish civil service as per-

manent undersecretary in the Ministry of Finance and

subsequently became president of the board of the Bank