Sweden’s diplomatic freeze with the USA

Outraged by the Christmas bombings of Hanoi in 1972 by the USA during the Vietnam War, the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme made a critical speech.

He compared the US’s actions to several massacres from history, including the killing of hundreds of thousands of Jews at the Treblinka Concentration Camp by the Nazis.

President Richard Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger reacted by recalling their ambassador and refusing to accept the Swedish counterpart.

Jan Ellisson was the first person to see the speech in the Swedish embassy in Washington and spent the next 15 months working to re-establish relations.

He has been speaking to Tim O’Callaghan.

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(Photo: Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, who made the speech about the Hanoi bombings. Credit: Sjöberg Bildbyrå/ullstein bild via Getty Images)