Hammarskjöld is an old Viking name—as compared to a peasant name like Larson. The family has been loyally keeping the Swedish royals out of trouble for several centuries—his father served as Swedish Prime Minister during World War I and was considered a world-class expert in international law. Dag grew up in Uppsala—Sweden's premiere university town. He was a smart young man who had every possible educational door opened for him. The result was spectacular as Hammarskjöld grew into a thoughtful, wise man with profound insights into the human condition. I reread Markings a few years back and found parts that were still breath-taking.
But even reading Markings did not prepare me for my first exposure to Olaf Palme's Sweden in 1970. Except for his well publicized criticisms of the USA invasion of Vietnam, I actually knew very little about him at all. But as I toured that country humming with world-class industry and no slums, I started to get clues of just what it required to become the leader of the Social Democrats of Sweden. It turned out that Palme was another of those hyper-educated, thoughtful, and brilliant public servants that Sweden could cough up on a regular basis in those days. Not only did he make great decisions about the operation of his country, he had a sound theoretical basis for his ideas. The result was that Palme's Sweden became arguably the most imitated and admired country on earth.
Unfortunately, his belief in the intrinsic goodness of human nature did him in. On a cold February night, Palme and his wife went to the movies unescorted by guards. He hated the whole security business and ditched it regularly. It made him an easy target for an assassin. The crime has never been solved and the list of bad guys with bad motives is long. But whoever they were, they really took out the right guy. The Left in Europe has really never recovered. Sweden has lost much of its unusual character.