The Secret Swede

It has gone 22 years since the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme was assassinated in Stockholm. Palme is one of the most well-known Swedish politicians of our time due to his fierce opposition to American foreign policies and his assassination on 28 February 1986.United States recalled its Ambassador to Sweden in February 1968 in protest to Palme (then Minister of Education) participating in a demonstration in Stockholm against the war in Vietnam. In 1972 relations between Sweden and the United States were frozen for over a year after a speech by Palme (PM) comparing the US bombings of Hanoi to other atrocities such as the bombing of Guernica and extermination of Jews at Treblinka. The U.S government called this a "gross insult". Asked about Palme, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once answered that he usually disliked the people he agreed with and liked the people he disagreed with, adding dryly: "So Palme, I liked - a lot". Olof Palme is also remembered for his engagement in liberation of oppressed people in third world countries (South Africa, Nicaragua, Palestine, El Salvador etc.) and his harsh criticism of the Franco Regime in Spain, apartheid in South Africa. One of his most memorable visits was with the Cuban leader Fidel Castro.Meeting between Olof Palme, Lisbet Palme and Fidel Castro, Cuba 1975Palme was very popular among the left and Social Democrats, but had equal number of enemies on the right. His assassination is still an unsolved case, 22 years later. The ...Read More