Swedish Attacks on America's Vietnam Policies

In a dispatch to the Mew York Times, Cctober 28, its Swedish correspondent reports that Americans in Sweden are shocked by the fierceness of public reaction to U.S. foreign policy. "Demonstrations such as the burning of an American flag last May Day and a march by thousands of youths in downtown Stockholm during 'Vietnam Week' two weeks ago have led to the posting of a Swedish police car outside the United States Embassy. The embassy has been under special guard since early in the year. In addition, guests arriving at the nearby residence of Ambassador and Mrs.J. Graham Parsons for a reception or a dinner are under the surveillance of one or more Swedish policemen in a patrol car. "The main source of concern is not the disturbances, however, or the continual attacks on the United States from the Swedish left, including the intellectual community. Rather it is the increasing indications reported from all over the country that the general public in this neutral land has begun to look upon the United States as the oppressor in Vietnam. .... The Swedish people still admire the United States, to which hundreds of thousands of Swedes have emigrated since the midcle of the last century. But there are widespread feclings of anxiety and disil’.usionment over American actions in Vietnam. .... "Aftonbladet, the only Social Democratic newspaper in Stockholm, has been among. the sharpest critics of United States policy on Vietnam. In an editorial on Cctober 9, demanding that Washington stop supporting 'a ridiculous military regime' in Saigon, the paper said: 'President Johnson contends he wants peace negotiations but that the other party is unwilling. One must say that Americans do not make it easy for others to have confidence in their will for peace.' Such attacks have not drawn point-by-point renlies from the American Embassy. The feeling there is that such action would only intensify the denunciations. Some attaches have been making speeches before small groups in various parts of Sweden restating American willingness to de-escalate and negotiate providing that there is a corresponding response from the Communist side. "The Ambassador has concentrated his efforts on private talks and on sucresting to industrial, business and other groups that Swedes might have a lot to lose if their country's 'image' deteriorated in the United States. The hope is that these groups may in turn seek eventually to convince the Swecish Government that it should take a lead from the debate and thus blunt the anti-American attacks.”