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Trygve Halvdan Lie ( /ˌtɾygʋə 'li:ə/ (help·info) ) (July 16, 1896 - December 30, 1968) was a Norwegian politician. From 1946 to 1952 he was the first elected Secretary-General of the United Nations. Lie was born in Oslo (then Kristiania) on 16 July 1896. Lie's father, Martin, left the family to work as a carpenter in the United States and his mother, Hulda, ran a boarding house. Lie joined the Labour Party in 1911 and was named as the party's national secretary soon after receiving his law degree from the University of Oslo in 1919. He married Hjørdis Jørgensen in 1921; the couple had three daughters, Sissel, Guri, and Mette. He worked as a legal consultant from 1922 and was subsequently elected to the Storting (Norway's Parliament). He was appointed Minister of Justice when a Labour Party government was formed by Johan Nygaardsvold in 1935. Lie was later named Minister of Trade and Industries and Minister of Supply and Shipping. An early admirer of the October Revolution in Russia, Lie once met Vladimir Lenin and gave permission for Leon Trotsky to settle in Norway after he was exiled from the Soviet Union. It has been rumored that Lie succumbed to Joseph Stalin's wishes to have Trotsky placed under house arrest, though historians can neither confirm nor fully deny this. Lie later ordered Trotsky to leave Norway when Trotsky violated his promise to refrain from political activity. In 1940, when Norway was invaded by Germany, Lie ordered all Norwegian ships to sail to Allied ports. Lie was named as Foreign Minister of the Norwegian government-in-exile. Lie led the Norwegian delegation to the United Nations conference in San Francisco in 1946 and was a leader in drafting the provisions of the United Nations Security Council. He was the leader of the Norwegian delegation to the United Nations general assembly in 1946. On February 1, 1946, he was elected as the first Secretary General of the United Nations as a result of a compromise between the major powers, having only missed being elected President of the first General Assembly by a small margin. He gets much of the credit for securing the current site for the United Nations headquarters from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and establishing the offices there. As Secretary General, Lie supported the foundation of Israel and Indonesia. He worked for the withdrawal of Soviet forces in Iran and a ceasefire to fighting in Kashmir. He attracted the ire of the Soviet Union when he helped gather support for the defense of South Korea after it was invaded in 1950 and later worked to end the Soviet boycott of UN meetings, though his involvement has only little to do with the eventual return of the Soviet Union to the UN. He was opposed to Spain's entry into the United Nations because of his opposition to the Franco government. He also sought to have the People's Republic of China recognized by the United Nations after the Nationalist government was exiled to Taiwan, arguing that the People's Republic was the only government which could fulfill the membership obligations in full. He has been criticized for his failures to facilitate negotiation in the Berlin Blockade, as well as his failure to bring about a more swift end to the Korean War. His critics argue that he was under the influence of a select few in the UN Secretariat. He has also been criticized for his arrogance and stubbornness. Over objections from the Soviet Union, his term of office was extended by the General Assembly 46 - 5 in 1950. This was the result of a Security Council impasse, in which the US refused to accept any candidate but Lie, and the Soviet Union's absolute refusal to accept him again, due to his involvement in the Korean War. The Soviet Union refused to acknowledge him as secretary general in his second term, and after having been accused by Joseph McCarthy of hiring "disloyal" Americans (an allegation which he attributed to the rapid hiring of civil servants necessary after the creation of the organization), Lie resigned on November 10, 1952. Lie remained active in Norwegian politics after his resignation from the UN. He was the Governor of Oslo and Akershus, Chairman of the Board of Energy, Minister of the Interior, and Minister of Trade. Though he never achieved widespread popularity, he earned a reputation as a pragmatic, determined politician. Lie died on December 30, 1968 of a heart attack. He was 72 years old.
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