Petrus Jozef Sietse "Piet" de Jong (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈpeːtrʏ ˈɕoːzəf ˈsitsə ˈpi(d) də ˈjɔŋ]; 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 state commissions 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 101 years, 115 days. His premiership is consistently regarded both by scholars and the public to have been one of the best in Dutch history.
Petrus Jozef Sietse de Jong was born on 3 April 1915 in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands province of Gelderland in a Roman Catholic family that originated from Friesland, as the sixth of seven children of Joännes Jans de Jong (24 February 1878 – 28 November 1931), a railroad superintendent, and Gijsberta Adriana Schouten (29 December 1877 – 30 June 1957). After leaving secondary school, de Koninklijke Hogereburgerschool (now de Koninklijke Scholengemeenschap), he joined the Royal Netherlands Navy as a midshipman in 1931 and subsequently attended the Royal Netherlands Naval College in Den Helder. In 1934, he received his commission as a sub-lieutenant.
After his graduation in 1934, he served a short time in the Dutch East Indies before he entered service in the Royal Netherlands Navy Submarine Service. On 10 May 1940 Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands and the government fled to London to escape the German occupation. De Jong, then a Lieutenant junior grade, was giving a battlefield promotion and command of the nearly finished submarine HNLMS O 24 and was ordered to bring the submarine to the HMNB Portsmouth naval base in Portsmouth, England. De Jong successfully navigated the HNLMS O 24 through English Channel and was awarded the Bronze Cross for bravery on 16 July 1940. De Jong served as First Officer on the HNLMS O 24 from July 1940 until October 1944 fighting in the Battle of the Atlantic from July 1940 until July 1942 when the HNLMS O 24 was transferred to the British Eastern Fleet to fight in the Pacific War. On 8 July 1943 De Jong was awarded the Bronze Cross for bravery a second time. On 25 October 1944 De Jong was promoted to lieutenant commander and was appointment as commanding officer of the HNLMS O 24. Under his command the HNLMS O 24 initially continued in the Pacific War. Following the end of World War II De Jong continued to serve in the Royal Netherlands Navy holding several administrative functions. On 14 November 1951 De Jong was appointment as commanding officer of the frigate HNLMS De Zeeuw and on 20 October 1951 De Jong was transferred to the Allied Command Channel at the HMNB Portsmouth naval base in Portsmouth, England as a senior staff officer. In April 1953 De Jong was promoted to commander and in March 1955 De Jong was appointment as chief of staff to the Inspector General of the Navy Lieutenant admiral Prince Bernhard and as chief military adjutant and senior aide-de-camp to Queen Juliana. In October 1958 De Jong was promoted to captain and appointment as commanding officer of the destroyer HNLMS Gelderland.
On 7 June 1959, during a NATO naval exercises near Scotland, De Jong received an unexpected telegram with the orders that he was to report the next day to Vice Admiral Leendert Brouwer, the Commander of the Royal Netherlands Navy himself, De Jong was summoned because of his "appointment" as State Secretary for Defence in the new De Quay cabinet. De Jong was airlifted from HNLMS Gelderland by helicopter and transported to the aircraft carrier HNLMS Karel Doorman. It was the second time that De Jong was asked for a political office, for the Dutch general election of 1956 he was approached by Carl Romme the leader of the Catholic People's Party for a seat in the House of Representatives but De Jong respectfully declined his offer, and stated: "I don't have political ambitions, I want to become an admiral".
During that time the independence of the Royal Netherlands Navy in the Armed forces of the Netherlands was in question, the main focus of the discussion was the new command structure for all the service branches. Both a horizontal-structure and vertical-structure had their proponents and opponents, the Royal Netherlands Navy was historically a proponent of a vertical-structure but the horizontal-structure received increasing support, including from the then Minister of War and the Navy Kees Staf. During the cabinet formation for the De Quay cabinet the decision was made to go with the horizontal-structure and the first step was made with the combining of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Navy. With the combining of the ministries a serious efficiency problem in the Ministry of War was discovered, while the Ministry of the Navy was thought to be in an excellent administrative condition.
After his meeting with Admiral Brouwer, De Jong reported to the incoming Minister of Defence Sidney J. van den Bergh, who formally asked De Jong to become the new State Secretary for Defence. De Jong was given a few days to think it over and he used that time to speak with Carl Romme. De Jong informed him that he was not a member of the Catholic People's Party but Romme respond by saying: "You are not a member of a different party? No, but you are a Roman Catholic? Then we will we see you as one of us." Romme did advise De Jong to become a member of the Catholic People's Party after six months. On 11 June 1959, De Jong reported back to Van den Bergh and was told about the new horizontal-structure, De Jong who was a proponent of a vertical-structure was left with a few remarks. The next day the meeting was continued in the presence of the incoming Secretary-General for the Ministry of Defence Duyverman who was going to be responsible for all financial and budgetary affairs for the Ministry of Defence. De Jong objected, he thought he could not be politically responsible as the State Secretary for Defence if he was not responsible for all financial affairs for his own department, Van den Bergh became irritated with De Jongs position on the matter and the meeting was adjourned for 16 June 1959.