Gerhardsen's Second Cabinet

Gerhardsen's Second Cabinet
Cabinet of Norway
Date formed	5 November 1945
Date dissolved	19 November 1951
People and organisations
Head of state	Haakon VII of Norway
Head of government	Einar Gerhardsen
No. of ministers	15
Member party	Labour Party
Status in legislature	Majority government 76 / 150 (50.67%)
History
Elections	1945 parliamentary election 1949 parliamentary election
Legislature terms	1945-1949 1949-1953
Predecessor	Gerhardsen's First Cabinet
Successor	Torp's Cabinet

Gerhardsen's Second Cabinet governed Norway between 5 November 1945 and 19 November 1951. The Labour Party (Ap) cabinet was led by Einar Gerhardsen.^[1]

In May 1948, Gerhardsen told Jens Chr Hauge, that he was considering resigning.^[2] Furthermore, as candidates for prime minister, Gerhardsen named Torp, Sverre Støstad and Lars Evensen.^[2]

On 17 June 1948 parliament started its deliberations about the Helset Case.^[3] Something Gerhardsen knew, but did not tell parliament, was that he had certain^[4] evidence, that "either at the US embassy or in the top leadership of Norway's Armed Forces there were people who were willing to leak top secret info about then minister of defence's conversations with US military attaché, winter and spring 1948, in an attempt to force" the defence minister out of office—with or without the knowledge of Olaf Helset. Later in 1948 Olaf Helset resigned.