It is nice to denounce the practice of promoting an idea by force and coercion as radicalism when it comes to some, while preserving the right to use whatever means is most effective to spread for those who subscribe to one's own view of what the world should be like.



In the 1980:ies, Sweden 's prime minister was outspokenly critical of US rampages in Vietnam - more so than most heads of nations in the "Western World" then and now. Furthermore, Sweden was then - as it has been for most part of the modern times - run according to a social democratic political ideology , and Olof Palme was the prime minister and head of the Social Democratic Party.



During the 1980:ies, Carl Bildt the head of the main opposition party - proposing more right wing liberal ideas centered on privatizing and less state interference in distrubution of resources etc - began pointing out that there had been several detections of submarines in Swedish waters. Bildt made it clear that he suspected the Soviet Union , and when the Social Democratic administration and Palme did not respond with adequate outrage and suspicion against the Soviet Union , Bildt and his party companions began a campaign of discrediting Palme and the Social Democrats as being friendly with the Soviets.

Palme and his party remained in power until Palme was shot 28 Feb 1986 by an unknown killer. There has been no end to the theories about who actually was behind the murder.



Interestingly enough, we now can read in new book that these submarines and the ensuing campaign of connecting it to alleged and false claims of friendliness with the Soviet, was all part of a US-UK psy-op campaign intended to deprive Palme in particular and socialism in any form in general, of popular support. It is no coincidence that it just so happened to be that this fell in line with the wishes of the industry and capitalists - the majority of which supported the opposition party and Bildt, and overall the liberal capitalism US advocated.



So much for the respect for other people to chose according to their kind how they want to rule their society.





The Secret War Against Sweden: US and British Submarine Deception in the 1980s .

From the introduction:

In modern democratic countries, political control is not easily achieved through military power or propaganda. However, by the use of deception and psychological warfare, the public, political elite and local military forces may be deceived into supporting the policies of a major power. Mass media is thus manipulated not by propaganda, but by deception.

...this book makes it clear that the United States and Britain ran a 'secret war' in Swedish waters to test Sweden's capability and will in the 1980s. Within a couple of years, the number of Swedes perceiving the Soviet Union as a direct threat had increased from 5-10% in 1980 to 45% in 1983. In the same period, the number of Swedes viewing the Soviets as unfriendly increased from 30% to more than 80%.