Olof Palme, Sweden, and the Vietnam War

Over the years, the 1986 assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme has attracted considerable international attention. Yet, far more interesting than Palme’s death is his opposition to the Vietnam War. Neutral Sweden had the independence to challenge the Nixon administration that members of NATO did not have.

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In 1972, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme’s fierce condemnation of the Christmas Bombings of the North Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Haiphong led to a breakdown in diplomatic relations at the highest level between Sweden and the United States. The author argues that Sweden’s official position of neutrality allowed its Prime Minister greater independence of action on the international stage. Palme opposed the American military intervention in Southeast Asia for its violation of Vietnamese self-determination. Superpower aggression against one small country threatened all others, including Palme’s own. At the same time, the diplomatic freeze did not substantially damage Swedish-American relations. In spite of the tension with the Nixon White House, Stockholm and its embassy in Washington maintained excellent relations with Congress, with many ordinary Americans, and even with Nixon’s own State Department.