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Piet de Jong

Petrus Jozef Sietse "Piet" de Jong (; 3 April 1915 – 27 July 2016) was a Dutch politician and naval officer who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1967 to 1971. He was a member of the Catholic People's Party (KVP), later merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).

De Jong applied at the Royal Naval College in Den Helder and graduated as an ensign in the Navy and joined the Submarine Service. During World War II he served on the submarine HNLMS ''O 24'' as First Officer and later as commanding officer and saw action in both the Battle of the Atlantic and the Pacific War. After the War De Jong served as a staff officer and commanded a frigate and destroyer. After the 1959 general election, De Jong was unexpectedly appointed as State Secretary for Defence tasked with Naval Affairs taking office on 25 June 1959. After the 1963 general election, De Jong was appointed as Minister of Defence in the Marijnen cabinet taking office on 24 July 1963. The Marijnen cabinet fell 19 months into its term and was replaced by the Cals cabinet with De Jong continuing his office. The Cals cabinet fell just one year later and was replaced by the caretaker Zijlstra cabinet and De Jong again retained his position. After the 1967 general election, De Jong was elected to the House of Representatives on 23 February 1967. Following several failed coalition attempts De Jong was asked to lead a new cabinet and following a successful cabinet formation formed the De Jong cabinet and became Prime Minister of the Netherlands taking office on 5 April 1967.

For the 1971 general election the Catholics declined to nominate De Jong as lead candidate and shortly thereafter De Jong announced that he would not stand for the election. De Jong left office following the installation of the Biesheuvel I cabinet on 6 July 1971. De Jong continued to be active in politics and was elected to the Senate after the 1971 Senate election and became parliamentary leader serving from 11 May 1971 until 17 September 1974.

De Jong retired from active politics at 59 and became active in the private and public sectors as a corporate and non-profit director and served on several and councils and as a diplomat and lobbyist for several economic delegations on behalf of the government. De Jong was known for his abilities as an effective team leader and skillful negotiator. During his premiership, his cabinet was responsible for several major reforms to education, social security, taxes, overseeing improvement in relations with the former Dutch East Indies, handling the Counterculture of the 1960s, the fallout of the Vietnam War and dealing with several major crises such as the Moluccans incidents. De Jong continued to comment on political affairs as a statesman until his death in July 2016 at the age of 101. He holds the distinction as the first prime minister after World War II to complete a full term without any internal conflicts and holds the record as the second longest-lived Prime Minister, after Willem Drees, at . His premiership is consistently regarded both by scholars and the public to have been one of the best in Dutch history. Provided by Wikipedia