Word: hammarskjolds
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Equipped only with small arms-and moral authority-U.N. Secretary-General Hammarskjold and his flea-sized army appeared Lilliputian figures alongside the forces they were to keep apart (the Anglo-French invasion force alone was 50,000 strong). In Egypt the puny army must somehow ensure that two of the greatest nations in Europe abandon with grievous loss of face a last-ditch attempt to dominate a region of the world vital to their survival as major powers...
...north lay an even tougher challenge with which neither Hammarskjold nor any of his men had yet come to grips-the barbaric Soviet repression of Hungary's fight for liberty. And behind these specific problems lay the two historic convulsions of the mid-20th century world: the upsurge of the peoples of Asia and Africa, and the conflict between Communism and democracy. The difficulties were immense. "For the first time in history," said Dwight Eisenhower, "an international machinery, set up by nations for the settlement of international disputes, is receiving a truly thorough test...
...Letter. If the U.N. succeeds in evolving into something more, the shape it takes will owe much to Dag Hammarskjold. As Secretary-General of the United Nations, Hammarskjold holds a job whose very title carries overtones of impotence. Today, however, what was originally conceived of as the world's top civil-service berth ($20,000 a year tax free and $35,000 for expenses) shows promise of developing into an executive post of potentially immense power. Partly, this is a matter of impersonal historic forces-among them the tendency of a frightened legislature to yearn for a strong executive...
Keenly aware of the suspicion with which national states regard any proposal to limit their sovereignty-as Deputy Foreign Minister of Sweden he had plenty of practice in thinking in purely nationalistic terms-Hammarskjold moves cautiously, never asks more power than he needs or the situations require. But he refuses to regard himself as a mere agent of a legislature. Given a mission, e.g., to arrange a cease-fire in Egypt. Hammarskjold is guided not by the letter of his instructions but by his understanding of what the majority of the United Nations wants...
...ambitions of the big powers." In Germany, Cologne's Neue Rhein Zeitung conceded: "One must state with astonishment that the U.N. is stronger than it seemed." Even New York's xenophobic Daily News (which usually wishes that its 42nd Street neighbor would drop dead) credited Dag Hammarskjold's "diplomatic menagerie" with "quite an achievement...