Eelco van Kleffens

Eelco Nicolaas van Kleffens ( born November 17 1894 in Heerenveen, † 17 June 1983 Almocageme at Sintra, Portugal ) was the ( non-party ) Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands from 1939 until 1946.

Kleffens worked for the League of Nations and took effect in 1922 in the Dutch Foreign Service. He was appointed in August 1939 as Foreign Minister and retained the post after fleeing to Britain, which had become necessary when the German Wehrmacht in May 1940 occupied the Netherlands.

During his time as foreign minister, he supported the Allies and realized the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and the Vatican. He made himself strong for a planned annexation of large areas of German and would have taken a mass expulsion of Germans in purchasing.

After the war he became in 1946 Minister without Portfolio until he was appointed Dutch ambassador to the U.S. in 1947. At the same time he was the representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations, and President of the 9th UN General Assembly ( 1954/1955 ). In 1950 the honorary position of Minister of State was given to him. The American Society of International Law in 1956 appointed him an honorary member. He later took several ambassador to Portugal ( until 1956 ), NATO and the OECD ( until 1958 ) and in the ECSC ( to 1967).

After retiring from the service van Kleffens moved to Portugal, where he eventually died. He was married to Margaret Helen Horstman since 1935.