Hammarskjold - Week 2

On April 7,1953 Dag Hammarskjold was appointed as Secretary-General of the United Nations. Hammarskjöld was not a member of any political party and regarded himself as politically independent. That attitude combined with his Swedish neutrality made him a candidate acceptable to everyone.

He was not aware that he was under consideration for the position and was surprised when the news came. When he arrived in New York he was met by Trygve Lie the current Secretary-General with the words “you are going to take over the most impossible job on Earth.”

His career up till that point would seem to have prepared him. In 1945, he was appointed adviser to the Swedish Cabinet on financial and economic problems. In 1947 he was appointed to the Foreign Office with rank of Under-Secretary. In 1949, he was appointed Secretary-General of the Foreign Office and in 1951, he joined the Cabinet as Minister without portfolio. He was a delegate to the Paris Conference in 1947 and he was his country's chief delegate to the 1948 Paris Conference of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). He was Vice-Chairman of the Swedish Delegation to the Sixth Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly in Paris 1951-1952, and acting Chairman of his country's delegation to the Seventh General Assembly in New York in 1952-1953.
 
From Markings:

What next? Why ask? Next will come a demand about which you already know all you need to know: that its sole measure is your own strength.