Proximity to Finland and, ultimately, to the Soviet Union, meant that Sweden refused 'he other Scandinavian countries into NATO in 1949. The country did, however, much ™J°"servative disquiet, return most of the Baltic and German refugees who had fought against "ussia during the war into Stalin's hands their rate not difficult to guess Postwar politics The wartime coalition quickly gave way to a purely Social Democratic government committed to welfare provision and increased defence expenditure nonparticipation in military alliances didn't mean a throwing down of weapons. Tax increases and a trade slump lost the Social Democrats seats in the 1948 general election and by 1951 they needed to enter a coalition with the Agrarian (later the Centre) Party to survive. This coalition lasted until 1957, when disputes over the form of a proposed extension to the pension system brought it down. An inconclusive referendum and the withdrawal of the Centre Party from government forced an election which saw no change. Although the Centre gained seats and the Conservatives replaced the Liberals as the main opposition party, the Social Democrats still had a (thin) majority. Sweden regained much of its international moral respect (lost directly after World War II) through the election of Dag Hammarskjoid as SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations in 1953. His strong leadership greatly enhanced the prestige (and effectiveness) of the organisation, participating in the solution of the Suez crisis (1956) and the 1958 LebanonJordan affair. He was killed in an air crash in 1961, towards the end of his second fiveyear term. Throughout the 1950s and 19BCs, domestic reform continued Unabated. It was in these years that the country laid the foundations of its much vaunted social security system, although at the time it didn't always bear close scrutiny. A National Health Service gave free hospital treatment, but only allowed for a small refund of doctor's fees, medicines and dental treatment hardly as farreaching as the British system introduced immediately after the war. The Social Democrats stayed in power until 1976, when a nonSocialist coalition (Centre LiberalModerate) finally unseated them. In the 44 years since 1932, the Socialists had been an integral part of government in Sweden, tempered only by periods of war and coalition. It was a remarkable record, made more so by the fact that modern politics in Sweden has never been about ideology so much as detail. Socialists and non Socialists alike share a broad consensus on foreign policy and defence matters, even on the need for the social welfare system. The argument instead has been economic, and a manifestation of this is the nuclear issue. A second non Socialist coalition formed in 1979 presided over a referendum on nuclear power (1980), the pro nuclear lobby securing victory viith the result an immediate expansion of the nuclear programme.