HAMMARSKJýLD DIES IN PLANE CRASH:

Another one of those "What If" moments in history.................PEACE................Scott

HAMMARSKJýLD DIES IN PLANE CRASH:
September 18, 1961

United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjýld dies when his plane crashes
under mysterious circumstances near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).
Hammarskjýld was on his way to meet with Moise Tshombe, leader of the breakaway
Congolese province of Katanga, with the aim of negotiating an end to the Congo
crisis.Dag Hammarskjýld, the second secretary-general of the United Nations, was
an influential force for peace during his seven years as head of the United
Nations. He was the son of Hjalmar Hammarskjýld, who was the prime minister of
Sweden from 1914 to 1917. Dag Hammarskjýld worked as an economist and in 1930
joined the Swedish civil service as secretary of a government committee on
unemployment. Beginning in 1936, he was permanent undersecretary in the Ministry
of Finance. He joined Sweden's foreign ministry in 1947 and in 1951 formally
entered the cabinet as deputy foreign minister. The same year, he traveled to
the United Nations as vice chairman of the Swedish delegation and in 1952 was
appointed acting U.N. chairman for Sweden.Elected U.N. secretary-general on the
recommendation of the Security Council on April 7, 1953, he led missions to
China, the Middle East, and elsewhere to arrange peace settlements and become
better acquainted with the United Nations' member states. He played a key role
in the resolution of the Suez Canal Crisis of 1956. In 1957, he was unanimously
reelected secretary-general.During his second term, he initiated and directed
the United Nations' vigorous role in the Congolese Civil War, which broke out
after Belgium granted independence to the Congo in June 1960. A U.N. force was
sent to restore order, but it soon became entangled in the Cold War aspects of
the conflict. In September 1960, the Soviet Union demanded Hammarskjýld's
resignation after the United Nations gave tacit approval to the removal of
Congo's left-leaning prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. Despite the challenge to
his authority, Hammarskjýld remained secretary-general.In 1961, the U.N. force
in the Congo turned its attention against Katanga, the wealthy Congolese
province that had seceded in 1960 with the support of Belgium mining interests.
The U.N. troops mounted an offensive against Katanga, fighting Katangalese
troops and white mercenaries, and Katangalese leader Moise Tshombe escaped with
some of his forces to Northern Rhodesia.On the night of September 18, 1961,
Hammarskjýld was flying to Ndola to meet with Tshombe to negotiate an end to the
bloodshed when his Swedish DC6 aircraft crashed just a few miles short of its
destination. The secretary-general and 15 others were killed. Hammarskjýld's
body was thrown out of the wreckage and came to rest in a sitting position
beside a giant ant-hill. Many suspected that the plane had been shot down or
exploded by a bomb, a theory that was reinforced when the sole survivor of the
crash, an American security guard, spoke of hearing an explosion before the
plane went down. In 1962, the Rhodesian Federal Inquiry Commission, which
investigated the crash, concluded that the pilot flew too low and struck trees,
thereby bringing the aircraft to the ground.Dag Hammarskjýld was posthumously
awarded the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize. He was succeeded as U.N. secretary-general
by U Thant of Myanmar.

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