Minister of defense of the Netherlands Willem Frederik Van Eekelen (born 1931) became secretary-general of the Western European Union in 1989.

In 1939 Willem Frederik Van Eekelen was born in Utrecht in the Netherlands. In 1943 he entered Utrecht's best secondary school (equivalent to junior high school and high school in the United States), the Stedelijke Gymnasium Utrecht, and studied there until 1949. He then left the Netherlands to study political science at Princeton University in the United States. In 1952 he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating with high honors.

Upon return to his country, Van Eekelen studied law at the University of Utrecht and received his law degree in 1956. Being an outstanding student, he was later admitted to study for his doctorate degree in political science at the same University of Utrecht. His thesis, "Indian Foreign Policy and the Border Dispute with China," was published in 1964.

While pursuing his doctorate, he...