- Eelco van Kleffens
Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens (
November 17 ,1894 inHeerenveen –June 17 ,1983 inAlmoçageme ,Portugal ) was a politician and diplomat ofThe Netherlands .After receiving a
Doctor of Laws degree fromLeiden University , van Kleffens worked in the Secretariat of theLeague of Nations . In the early 1930s he was also Secretary-General of theHague Academy of International Law .Van Kleffens was appointed the
Foreign Minister of the Netherlands in 1939, weeks beforeWorld War II began, and was part of theDutch government in exile over that period. During the war he penned an account of the German invasion named "Juggernaut over Holland" which was circulated within the occupied territory, and he was also one of the original signatories of theBenelux union.Van Kleffens held the position of foreign minister until the Schermerhorn/Drees cabinet of 1946. Following his resignation from the ministerial position (but not from the cabinet) van Kleffens became the Netherlands' representative on the
United Nations Security Council, and in 1947 was appointed the ambassador to theUnited States . In 1950 he became the ambassador toPortugal , and was bestowed the title ofMinister of State , a prestigious honour.In 1954 van Kleffens was appointed the to the position of
President of the United Nations General Assembly for that body's ninth session.Van Kleffens was the Dutch representative at
NATO and theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development from 1956 to 1958, and at theEuropean Coal and Steel Community from 1958 until 1967, after which Van Kleffens retired toPortugal , where he died onJune 17 ,1983 .References
* [http://www.un.org/ga/55/president/bio09.htm UN biography]
External links
* [http://www.archive.org/details/TheForeignPolicyOfTheNetherlands Speech on foreign policy from 1943]
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