WATCH: Roger Lipsey's speech at UN honoring Dag Hammarskjöld
Video of the United Nations' tribute to Dag Hammarskjöld, marking sixty years since his inauguration at the organization's second Secretary General, is now online at the UN's website. Roger Lipsey, author of the recently-published Hammarskjöld biography from the University of Michigan Press, was a featured speaker at the event.
"I still ask myself how best to characterize Dag Hammarskjöld," Lipsey began. "How to characterize him in a way that encourages us, not just to celebrate him in the distance as a lofty lost figure, but as a working example—close, inspiring. He was a sign of what is possible, but from time to time we need to reinterpret the sign and renew the relation."
Over the course of his twenty minute speech, Lipsey praised Hammarskjöld's qualities of "realism, improvisation when needed, quiet diplomacy out of the glare of publicity, firm confidence in the value of UN debates, a long sense of history, and daring—the courage to take closely calculated but very real risks."
The entire tribute can be viewed at the United Nations website. Lipsey's talk begins around the 26 minute mark. For a more in-depth examination of the life of the UN's second Secretary General, pick up Lipsey's Hammarskjöld: A Life.
