their error and this is interesting, have applied to the federal government under the veterans program for this money for jobs for veterans returning to server placing her rehiring police officers in the city of chicago with federal money. it's a terrible situation. >> i think were just about out of time, said that to thank everybody for coming in through the book has been trained for by roberto lombardo. i encourage you to read all the chapters in the conclusion. thanks for coming

is often him and teaching community. he dealt with all sorts of matters and how they might view them. you know, before we take that out, though, i think that we should summon the image.

and you can do that through a much abridged and sequence of slides. you know, this is a portrait, which i think we can take as part of this system. he was a marvelously blue item composed and curiously warm individual. this is the kind of scene in which she lived for years and years. i think it is in africa, this photo is from africa, this is a scene that was reproduced hundreds of times during his 8.5 years as secretary general. then his eyes are closed, it

indicates that he has been asked to many questions. and this was his job. his job was to face the world. to face this and to be firm. to be immensely intelligent and fun of extremely difficult situations. now, all of you know that there were two great aspects. one was the senior diplomatic individual and he was a genius. the other was the journal people are, the person who all through his manhood and middle years as a civil servant, at the end of his civil service career he was a cabinet member. and he was keeping a private journal, which was never revealed and no one had ever read it.

simply informed a friend toward the end of his years at the u.n., that they would leave a note on it for this friend and the friend could decide whether to publish it or not. this is a page from the journal. just at the moment in early april. he was on his way to accept the post of secretary general. at the top as several friends have read, words that mean god in me. and people have taken that as an assertion. as if this is something that can be imposed. and it is not an assertion, but

a fundamental prayer as he entered upon the u.s. service. but somehow through the flawed human vehicle that he was, that of righteous providence can act. now, another individual talent of this is that he was known for was multilingual, he was french and swedish. he spoke a language is. so that is what i would like to translate for you here. his inauguration was the 10th of april. but the early french says is from thomas campos.

he had a trip to the congo. he says those who are firmly placed in god cannot be proud. all of the good with which they are overwhelmed, they do not receive one from another. but they desire only the grace of god alone. so this is the other side of dag hammarskjold. what one saw at the inoculation was the splendor and marvelously composed individual who gave a perfectly wonderful speech at the u.n. this is what one saw. within him there was -- let's

just say for now, there was a prayer. i wanted you to see his handwriting. it is obviously unique. there were jokes about it, it looks as though it could be read forwards or or backwards. and the end then it kind of looks like arabic. but it certainly gives you a sense for immensely disciplined and compressed in a rather abstract mentality. so the april 10, 1953, the young secretary general. i wanted to show you his places. this is his office, it is a photograph by nelson, which is a well-known swedish photographer. he captures the light and the

loneliness of the man. the loneliness had two aspects as i and others have interpreted it. on the one hand the position of secretary general involves. relationships and connections and also a certain distance from necessity. the distance and solitude of someone who cannot be compromised. the one who must enter in the cannot be swallowed up, it is somehow reflected in this. the other aspect is that he was a bachelor and when christmas came around he had the experience that so many people who live on their own, he would feel lonely in the main people that knew him care for him on a personal basis.

they would invite him for a christmas dinner or something of that nature. so he did suffer from time to time from a profound loneliness. yet he eventually understood that his aloneness had to be a structure -- a personal structure and an identity that he could not overcome and need not overcome. here is another picture. and it is just off of park avenue. our historians have part of this. it is interpretable here. it was given here and he knew

that dag hammarskjold was a badge of dag hammarskjold is a very strong individual in the swedish north country. they required more equal it restricts, which means balance. he gave him this with the inscription, so that you can climb to greater heights. that is written on that object. the little ship is a model that was given him after the first first eight months. he had a mission across the west

with what he thought would be the indies, it turned out to be a new continent. he often compared this to the experience with columbus setting off into the unknown. someone had a gift of this. it shows you a little bit of how he lived. i'm not sure if it's printed or booked. they had a country home in brewster, new york. he could escape to it and it was a great relief to him. he often wrote in his journal about it. i wanted to show you also, now that you have seen these places, some of his attitudes. here he is speaking with the

director of security and it is one of my favorite photos of him. it shows a very clever and shrewd man. a highly intelligent face and one that is also part of this look. one who is of experience and who has been on the block. here he is sitting in 1959 with the burmese diplomat with whom he held him and greatest regard. he actually became a successor on the other took his life in september of 1961. he is sitting here at the high podium in the general assembly. this is something that was so characteristic of him. they have three chairs. the left him chair of the

secretary-general, the one on the right for the secretary-general and the chief of staff. again, a favorite photograph and brian burkhardt who i have worked with before, he has this photo among very few in his workspace to this day. and it simply shows dag hammarskjold in an elevator bank probably on the 30th floor. again, in a word, can pose. within himself. yet reading papers that needed attention.

he had the best time and he found them to be games of wit and cat and mouse. when he needed to, he was extremely revealing and press conferences because he wanted the public to know certain things as a way of pinning them down and make them a matter of public record. when he didn't want the press to know something, he could be immensely uncontained. this reflects his joy. there is so much gravitas in my book. this is a joyful at all.

the event thoroughly tested him and created his reputation among the delegations to the u.n. the issue is here and he has been welcomed as part of this great prime minister of the people's republic of china to negotiate the freedom of 13 american airmen on the u.n. duty under the u.n. flag who has been shot and they were treated as

spies. which you know is very precarious and can lead to lifelong imprisonment. it shows the compression on him. he took in at least 10 months to realize this. it made everyone realize that he was someone who had to take it seriously. this is him in 1955. that is when the u.n. celebrated

their 10th anniversary and there was a big meeting in san francisco. up up up up and should think that the meeting was very pleasant. how can anything be unpleasant in san francisco? dag hammarskjold played his role. he gave a talk at it was very interesting. he was very realistic about the difficulties and there was so much waiting in the wing during the summer of 1955. this is part of the sacrifice in a barbarian called because of the divine intention behind it.

it is a feeble creation of men's hands, but you must give it all to the dream, for that alone acres that. i consider this lastingly important. that alone acres and a reality. this includes a good idea, a good feeling. fine intentions. as well as total commitment, even to the point of selfless commitment. that was his credo. that is not what he altogether expected where the u.n. was concerned. that, he says, is what any doubt the u.n. with reality. i find that very interesting.

you also notice. that the artist of these perfectly wonderful covers, this is the son of the russian who owned the opera stage in the 1920s and '30s. i do not think this is by him. but it takes us to the next measure and event in his u.n. career, which was the suez canal crisis. you probably remember this. this is the lifeline of the british empire and the personal passing through it to india and other parts of the empire.

this is within the agreement. he had very strong guidance to negotiate a satisfactory outcome from this nationalization. we are overturning the government and to occupy the suez canal. he was out in the middle east at the request of the general assembly and security council.

in the meanwhile, while he was out there, these powers were conspiring, the three powers were conspiring to overturn us any most reckless way. it is staffed by many nations and could intervene between the combatants in this case and keep the peace. he drew this in his career.

the author was a very brilliant canadian, lester pearson. he worked very closely with dag hammarskjold when pearson received a nobel prize with the execution of peacekeeping. and he really gave all of the credit to dag hammarskjold. it is a very interesting story. brian burkhardt was the muscle. he was a brilliant african-american noble laureate who is one of the inner circle of dag hammarskjold. so that is what you are looking at trade it is hammarskjold being a peaceful man with no military experience. no military experience prior to this, he did this many times. strange enough to say, his advisor, his military advisor

said that hammarskjold was a good commander because of his long heritage of military men behind him. he said that he wasn't afraid of the military the way that so many were in high places in the u.n. i don't think that he was pleased to be reviewing the troops, but he knew how to do it. so we enter this in between was resolved so brilliantly. in the congo crisis, which this reflects. this is from summer of 1960. there were numbers of peacekeeping missions. there is another innovation

where he said that he didn't consider the charter immutable. he worked with it to find within it opportunities to fill in the gaps that haven't been noticed when the charter was written. one of these was the establishment of the program of special representatives. and this worked out while he was in jordan when there is a great need for some representation of the u.n. directly responsible to the secretary-general. but a number of people led by one who is highly responsible and connected. the whole program appeared in the years between suez and the congo.

the congo was legal in many respects and i don't think there's time for me to tell the whole story. but when the republic was granted independence by the belgians who were the colonizing agent and entity, they have not been well prepared at all to manage people and government and infrastructure. things fell apart incredibly fast within days. they were in chaos. and he was prime minister the ability to intervene. he got the message and geneva.

and he said i don't know where this is going to be. and those were his words. so this shows him at the u.n. in august of 1960. things went from bad to worse in the sequence of events. the mineral rich area was very important. it wasn't fully knowledged although certainly the belgians and others stripped away from the congo. about 50% or more of the revenue potential. it created an impossible situation. hammarskjold worked and worked with these poor people.

and there were 19,000 peacekeepers at one point. and things just kept deteriorating. his attitude include working immensely hard with his inner circle. he worked to set things right with the soviet bloc who said that he was part of the capitalist imperialists trying to create a neocolonialism. on the other side they were dragging their feet. there was a lot of covert support and it was an immensely difficult matter.

a truly wonderful indian diplomat was part of this. including a critical period of time. hammarskjold wrote about this with a particularly difficult point. not to just preserve the cable language but part of the political situation. one difficulty is that you can never go inside of this wi one difficulty is that you can never go inside of this with outside maneuvers. for that reason we are under handicap which we cannot overcome. for that reason also, i find it dangerous to base our actions on anything other than general concepts as to interplay the forces to the extent that we find our analysis supported by confirmed facts. leaving that we will get safer

results with a skeptical approach and believe also that this may save us from the danger of getting tied up in these type of intrigues which grow like mushrooms and die like mushrooms and mostly like mushrooms are rather poisonous. so as you can see, that is the unedited hammarskjold. this is actually excellent diplomatic advice to his peers. it is framed with a lot of personal bite. i knew when i came here that i have enough material for a daylong seminar. i just want to mention two things. one is something about his

death. secession was like a -- it was like a wound. he was wounded to the u.n. and to the congo. it became a kind of infected wound in september of 1961. several of the subordinates in the congo took measures that he had not approved except in principle. he expected that there would be a round up of mercenaries. and the now shipping of them back where they belonged. and they wanted that happen. to happen. but they didn't want to have to have that happen until they came to the congo and had a chance to speak with his lieutenants

there. they wanted to -- it appears that they wanted to give him the gift of a solved problem before he arrived or as he arrived. so something resembling a war broke out. and it turns out that everyone was deeply disturbed and hammarskjold decided to fly over to what seemed to be a safe haven in what was northern rhodesia, there is a town there. a copperbelt to negotiate a cease-fire that was his aim and this was an individual who got on an airplane in the late afternoon and the airport had crashed. the nature of the crash, at the time, there were three investigations. one of them by the u.n. and the

u.n. investigation did not eliminate the possibility of this. certainly there were those that might have imagined such things. it would be a good thing for their cause. nonetheless, the notion of pilot error has prevailed for 40 years. at this time there is an investigation underway. in september there will be a report on that private investigation by retired and distinguish individuals of swedish and african descent. and we will see what the report says. that is, the comment i want to make on that. the next hour of my talk won't

exist. it is to say something about the spiritual life and to say something about the way his spirituality inform his conduct as an individual diplomat. it is an immensely rich subject. it is virtually the central subject of my book. so i recommend that those of you who care for the u.n., read the book and see how that worked. i think that i often feel i have come to feel that great individuals, great men and women who are for the good they have a

capacity to infuse the field of action, which includes a community with purpose and a vitality and a kind of mixture of good humor and gravity. with many qualities and such people infuse this. the field remains sparkling while they are alive. this is certainly so in the time of hammarskjold. the spirituality that he bore within him that he did not reveal during his lifetime, that has the very beautiful message,

which is still available there. so though he did not often reveal his intense spirituality, his christian faith, it broadened and broadened so that really one could say is one of his friends did that he out named it as usually understood. and that intensity that he possessed, it was a factor that kept the field sparkling and interesting and important. he never slapped. he actually said that he is a member of the swedish academy he said that in this work we are doing every detailed account

possible. that reflects the way in which the field of attention and contact that he created around him but lifted up everybody, how all of the details were touched by what he was. so how to conclude this. perhaps what he said as well. it is stronger and stronger. we shall be able to break

through the fear and clumsiness and plain common stupidity. he also said that this reflects the threats of his vision and the nerve signals are felt at once all through the body at one time. i often think about the great men and women in the joy that we can learn from them and the burden they impose on us. we all have our role models. we all have our role models.

with them knowing who they were and what they stood for, making them my colleague. if that process can occur, if that can occur then i say that i say that that is good. i thank you. [applause] in a deterrent to a president or vice president for advice.

>> [inaudible question] >> yes, if you work in a spiritual sense to channel this, how would you say that he, today, could critique the united nations of today? >> i have the peculiar flaw of knowing more about the united nations than in this decade. it is simply so. i have spent years working on this book. but i do not think that he would have come in with guns blazing. i think that he would have done what he did and he went around to every office and shook hands

with 4000 people. he talked with them. i think after those 4000 conversations, you might draw a circle around you people who were experienced and wise. he might make a program. but he would not start with what you would call a critique. he would start with a simple hello. >> thank you for writing this book. what you picked is a wonderful book. what was the relationship to hammarskjold had with dwight dwight eisenhower

i think that eisenhower saw eye to eye with him on the suez crisis. >> well, he was privately -- he was not very patient about it. i think that he shared that end he pressured him in ways that are not sensible. but i think that he was surely grateful when eisenhower gave the four piece speech and he was grateful for policy and proposals and actions that eisenhower took. he thought it was unconscionably stupid to send 10,000 troops and he wrote a funny letter about

that. but it wasn't -- it really didn't need an amphibious landing. hammarskjold wrote a funny letter and he said the american troops had nothing to do but drink coca-cola. that cover your question, sir? [laughter] >> okay. [applause] >> is there a nonfiction author or book the you'd like to see featured on booktv? senescent e-mail at booktv@c-span.org or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> an insider's history. richard baker and the former

chief congressional correspondent for "time" magazine ended up providing a history of the united states senate. a continued economic growth and shows that it is a historical anomaly in the collapse is imminent when the money runs out. the end of western influence. and across the pond, terry eagleton provides a look at american culture. and eisenberg argues that wyatt earp's reputation has been distorted and provides evidence that he has a vigilante life. jerry dewitt recounts his struggle with identity after being shunned by his community. look for these titles in bookstores this coming week, and watch for the authors in the near future on booktv and on

booktv.org. >> now on booktv, a former writer for national geographic magazine accounts of emergency landing at nazi occupied albania in 1943. this was the secret rescue. this is one our. >> hello, good evening. it is a pleasure to be here tonight. ..