Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"After Lie’s reluctant resignation in late 1952, his successor, Dag Hammarskjöld, turned out to be the perfect person for this impossible job—firm, politic, a pragmatic idealist, and an innovator. Even in his first few, relatively quiet years, he developed a special place in discreet, behind-the-scenes diplomacy to solve tricky issues. . . . The high point of that performance undoubtedly occurred during the Suez-Hungary double crisis. The story deserves a much fuller telling than is possible here, for Hammarskjöld came close to producing miracles: shuttling among the Permanent Five, three of whom stood accused of violating international law and the Charter itself; moving from emergency General Assembly sessions to emergency Security Council meetings, then back to the Assembly again; crafting language that would advance the peace process and get the Great Powers off the hook; formulating—in less than forty-eight hours—the plan to insert an international peacekeeping mission (UNEF) to deploy between Egyptian and Israeli troops along the Gaza-Israel border; and mollifying everyone’s sensitivities in the most remarkable way." [Kennedy: Parliament of Man, Kindle Edition, Location 1016-38]