Dag Hammarskjöld
Economist and former Secretary-General of the United NationsWikipedia
43
MENTIONS
18
EPISODES
18
PODCASTS
Search complete. 43 mentions across 18 episodes found for "Dag Hammarskjöld".
Sep 24, 2026
Alex von TunzelmannGUEST
But the whole point is that it gives you something to enforce.
Chris CermakHOST
Next up is one of the UN's biggest hitters, Dag Hammarskjöld, UN Secretary General on the 1956 Suez Peacekeeping Force.
Dag HammarskjöldSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
The third report, document A, stroke 3289. is my first report in reply to the request of the Assembly that, within 48 hours, the Secretary General present a plan for the establishment of a United Nations force to secure and supervise the cessation of hostilities.
Chris CermakHOST
Peacekeeping also a part of the United Nations DNA, even in the Middle East, Alex.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
Technically, under UN protection, functionally frozen.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
Dag Hammarskjold personally went to Jerusalem and Amman trying to enforce Article 8.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
Ralph Bunch went.
Herman PoppleberryHOST
Both failed.
Robyn Roxanne KincaidHOST
That's how we wound up with the first woman president, Edith Wilson, who for all intents and purposes was the president of the United States after Wilson's stroke and until the end of his presidency.
Robyn Roxanne KincaidHOST
he might recall begged Thomas Riley Marshall his vice president to declare himself acting president Marshall the man who became most famous for saying what this country needs is a good five cent cigar he was an Indiana an Indiana lawyer and he should be actually more famous or perhaps infamous for not stepping in to try to act as the president of the united states in the during the incapacity of woodrow wilson because of course in the long view of history his failure to act led to the at least in part to the demise of the league of nations treaty and the demise of the league of nations led to the rise of nazi germany and the second world war and the deaths of millions upon millions of more human beings so that when united nations charter was proposed in the aftermath of the second world war remember its first home was san francisco uh... and what the first The first General Secretary was Dag Hammarskjöld.
Robyn Roxanne KincaidHOST
Do I have that right? Who, it turns out, may have actually been assassinated in 1952.
Robyn Roxanne KincaidHOST
But the point of even having a United Nations was to prevent another world war.
Robyn Roxanne KincaidHOST
And from the moment of its inception to this one, we have never had a ranting and raving quite like what Nitwit Nero did in the General Assembly today.
Robyn Roxanne KincaidHOST
We've talked about that.
Robyn Roxanne KincaidHOST
Thank you, Lee, serving as the Horn Ad Hoc First President of the UN General Assembly Ad Hoc Research Department, Dag Hammarskjöld.
Robyn Roxanne KincaidHOST
Thank you.
Rory StewartHOST
Then they got an awkward shock In the fifties and sixties when it suddenly turned out that all these new countries joining the UN turned out to be considerably more independent than people thought.
Rory StewartHOST
First shock was when Nehru put formal criticism of South Africa on the agenda, and then you had this amazing guy, U Thant who, and Dag Hammarskjold.
Rory StewartHOST
These were two really interesting figures who made the UN central to peace.
Rory StewartHOST
Dag Hammarskjold on Suez, U Thant on the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Rory StewartHOST
And U Thant, of course, a relatively mild-mannered, uh, middle-aged Burmese civil servant turned minister who suddenly became a kind of rock star celebrity in New York.
Rory StewartHOST
And there's a lovely book about him by his grandson, Thant Myint-U.
Mark Leon GoldbergGUEST
Sure.
Mark Leon GoldbergGUEST
So it's drawn from a quote from the second UN Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjöld, who said famously that the United Nations was not created to deliver us to heaven, but to save us from hell.
Mark Leon GoldbergGUEST
Hmm.
Kusha NavidarHOST
I also want to ask about how to refer to what's going on at the UN this week.
Mark Leon GoldbergGUEST
UNGA is the entire week of meetings at the United Nations, also elsewhere in New York.
Mark Leon GoldbergGUEST
But the general debate is the parade of presidents and prime ministers who speak from the General Assembly dais.
Kusha NavidarHOST
So the general debate kicks off tomorrow with an opening speech by the U.N. Secretary General.
Kusha NavidarHOST
Do you think he will tackle the issues like the Iran war or the disarray in the post-World War II order directly? Or will the speech be more of a welcome? What's the vibe generally with these kinds of speeches?
Mark Leon GoldbergGUEST
Sure.
Mark Leon GoldbergGUEST
So it's drawn from a quote from the second UN Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjöld, who said famously that the United Nations was not created to deliver us to heaven, but to save us from hell.
Mark Leon GoldbergGUEST
Hmm.
Koosha NavidarHOST
I also want to ask about how to refer to what's going on at the UN this week.
speaker_1ADVERTISER
right, Mr. Lee, loud.
Trygve LieSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Dag Hammarskjöld, I wish you from the bottom of my heart welcome to New York and to the United Nations headquarters.
Trygve LieSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
You are going to take over the most impossible job on earth.
Seán DefoeHOST
Dag Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat and politician, and remains the youngest ever person to hold the office, becoming Secretary General at the age of 47.
Seán DefoeHOST
I
Dag HammarskjöldSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
bring to this task
Seán DefoeHOST
A prime minister was elected, Patrice Lumumba, And a number of regions seceded from the newly formed Congo, declaring their own independence.
Seán DefoeHOST
For our story today, the most important of those was called Katanga.
Matt KellyHOST
And the UN, we've said this before, I think the UN has come to a point where it's borderline, as a central body, I'm sure it's got lots of worthwhile um extensions of of brand un if you like but in its main mission it is borderline irrelevant now isn't it
Matt d'AnconaHOST
it is and you know you i i i checked on what they've done so far on ai and to be honest it's a nothing burger there are a few they set up a few panels to investigate there have been some general assembly resolutions um that's it but you know it it's it's Again, one shouldn't be fatalistic, I think, because one of my great heroes is Dag Hammarskjöld, who was, I think, the greatest general secretary of the UN.
Matt d'AnconaHOST
You know, and he really, he put in a shift.
Matt d'AnconaHOST
You know, he got through the International Atomic Energy Authority in pretty short order in 56.
Tail DraggerHOST
They called her Albertina.
Tail DraggerHOST
Aboard Albertina that night was Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Tail DraggerHOST
A Swede, an economist by training, a diplomat by vocation, a mountain climber in his spare time.
Tail DraggerHOST
He spoke six languages and had been Secretary-General since 1953.
8 MINS LATER
Tail DraggerHOST
The copper mines kept running.
Tail DraggerHOST
The Swedish government has never stopped asking questions on behalf of the crew and passengers who were on that flight.
Tail DraggerHOST
The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Uppsala has never stopped pushing.
Tail DraggerHOST
As of this year, there is still no definitive answer.
JenniferHOST
In 1947, the National Security Act, which created a national military establishment and the position of Secretary of Defense, went into effect.
JenniferHOST
In 1961, United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold was killed in a plane crash in northern Rhodesia, now Zambia.
JenniferHOST
In 1970, rock star Jimi Hendrix died in London at age 27.
JenniferHOST
In 1975, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was captured by the FBI in San Francisco, 19 months after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
8 more episodes mention Dag Hammarskjöld.
Create an account to see the whole feed, search across every transcript, and follow the entities you care about.