OM DENNE EPISODE
Who killed Dag Hammarskjöld?
More than six decades after the UN Secretary-General died in the mysterious 1961 Ndola plane crash, the question remains unanswered. But if we genuinely want to understand what happened to Hammarskjöld, we may need to begin somewhere else:
Who was he? What did he believe? How did he exercise power at the United Nations? What was he trying to accomplish during the Congo Crisis—and whose interests stood in his way?
In this episode, I explore why Dag’s life may be one of the most important pieces of evidence in understanding his death.
We look beyond the wreckage at Ndola to the political world surrounding Hammarskjöld: his insistence on an independent international civil service, his evolving conception of the Secretary-General’s office, the struggle over Katanga, the powerful interests affected by UN policy in the Congo, and the enemies an independent Secretary-General could make.
The question is not only who benefited from Dag Hammarskjöld’s death?
It is also: What became easier once he was gone?
Dag Hammarskjöld was more than the mystery of his murder. To understand why he died, we must remember how he lived.
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Sara's award-winning biography of Dag, Decoding the Unicorn, can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Decoding-Unicorn-New-Look-Hammarskj%C3%B6ld-ebook/dp/B0DSCS5PZT
Simply Dag: The Private Man in a Public—and Dangerous—Office is now available in ebook and print anywhere Amazon books are sold: https://a.co/d/06kuNST9
The exclusive audiobook experience is available here: https://sara-ija-shop.fourthwall.com/products/simply-dag-audiobook
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#DagHammarskjöld #UnitedNations #CongoCrisis #Ndola #History #ColdWar
