7 Dag Hammarskjöld 7of Sweden. From 1947 he served in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. In 1951 Hammarskjöld was chosen vice chairman
of Sweden’s delegation to the UN General Assembly, of
which he became chairman in 1952. On April 10, 1953, five
months after the resignation of Trygve Lie of Norway as
secretary-general, Hammarskjöld was elected to the office
for a term of five years. In September of 1957, he was
reelected to another five-year term.
For several years Hammarskjöld was most concerned
with combat and threats of fighting in the Middle East
between Israel and the Arab states. He and the Canadian
statesman Lester Pearson participated in the resolution of
the Suez Canal crisis that arose in 1956. Hammarskjöld
also played a prominent role in the 1958 crisis in Lebanon
and Jordan.
The Belgian Congo became the independent Republic
of the Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo)
on June 30, 1960, and Hammarskjöld sent a UN force to
suppress the civil strife that began there soon afterward.
In September 1960, his action was denounced by the
Soviet Union, which demanded that he resign and that
the office of secretary-general be replaced by a three-man
board (troika) comprising representatives of the Western,
Communist, and neutral nations. Soon after, while on a
peace mission to President Moise Tshombe of the
Congolese province of Katanga, Hammarskjöld was killed
in an airplane crash.
As secretary-general, Hammarskjöld is generally
thought to have combined great moral force with subtlety
in meeting international challenges. He insisted on the
freedom of the secretary-general to take emergency
action without prior approval by the Security Council or
the General Assembly. He also allayed widespread fears
that the UN would be completely dominated by its chief