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Hanoi's Diplomatic Front in Sweden: Communist Propaganda Strategies in the Vietnam War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2021

Perry Johansson Open the ORCID record for Perry Johansson [Opens in a new window]
Perry Johansson*
Affiliation:
Department of History, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
*
pejoh@hku.hk
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Abstract

This article offers a new perspective on the Swedish protests against the Vietnam War by placing it in its broader global Cold War context. As a case study on ‘people's diplomacy’ and ‘united front strategy’, it acknowledges the importance of Chinese and Vietnamese influences on the peace campaigns in Sweden and aims, as far as possible, to reconstruct Hanoi's motives, strategies and actions to create and direct Sweden's policy and opinion on the war. With the extremely generous political freedoms granted it by official Sweden, Hanoi was able to find new international allies as well as organise political propaganda manifestations from their Stockholm base. In the end, North Vietnam's version of the war as being about national liberation fought by a people united in their resistance to a foreign, genocidal, aggressor won a large enough share of the opinion in the West to force the American political leadership to give up the fight. Hanoi's Diplomatic Front in Sweden was one of the important battlefields behind that victory

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Article
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Contemporary European History , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , May 2022 , pp. 195 - 213
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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10 Connelly, A Diplomatic Revolution, 279.

11 See, for example, Rosamond, Annika Bergman, ‘Swedish Internationalism and Development Aid’, in Pierre, Jon, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Swedish Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 462–478Google Scholar.

12 All Chinese and Swedish language sources are translated by the author. All translations from Vietnamese are by my research assistant, Yin Li.

13 The Swedish demand of the United States was to stop the bombings and to sign a peace treaty based on the October 1972 negotiations that agreed that the United States would withdraw all American and allied foreign troops from South Vietnam. See http://www.olofpalme.org/wp-content/dokument/721228_upprop.pdf. [accessed 5 Mar. 2020].

14 See Zhai, Qiang, China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000)Google Scholar or Jian, Chen, Mao's China and the Cold War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001)Google Scholar.

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16 Ibid.

17 For more on how Beijing managed to influence various socialist organisations in Sweden to become loyal to China and consequently support the North Vietnamese side in the war, see Johansson, Perry, ‘Mao and the Swedish United Front against the USA’, in Yangwen, Zheng, Liu, Hong, and Szonyi, Michael, eds., The Cold War in Asia: The Battle for Hearts and Minds (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 217–40Google Scholar.

18 For Gustafsson and the Beijing trip, see Johansson, ‘Mao and the Swedish United Front’.

19 Ambassador Yang Bozhen to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Document No. 110-01709-2, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archives, Beijing.

20 Report on activities 1963. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archives, Beijing. Document No. 110-01581.

21 See Johansson, ‘Mao and the Swedish United Front’, 227–8.

22 Chinese embassy reports 1965. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archives, Beijing.

23 Kilander, Åke, Vietnam var nära: En berättelse om FNL-rörelsen och solidaritetsarbeteti Sverige 1965–1975 (Stockholm: Leopard, 2007), 38Google Scholar.

24 Ibid.

25 See Åselius, Vietnamkriget, Scott, Swedish Social Democracy, or Kilander, Vietnam var nära for more details on the Haymarket Square demonstration.

26 See Möller, Yngve, Sverige och Vietnamkriget, ett unikt kapitel i svensk utrikespolitik (Stockholm: Tiden, 1992)Google Scholar.

27 Kilander, Vietnam var nära, 392.

28 Ibid., 216, 392.

29 Ibid., 216.

30 ‘People in Sweden Brought the Flag of the NLF of South Vietnam to Protest in Front of the U.S. Embassy’, Nhân Dân, 30 Aug. 1965, 4.

31 Lidman, Sara, Samtal i Hanoi (Stockholm: Albert Bonniers förlag, 1966), 20Google Scholar.

32 Ibid.

33 Ibid.

34 Mehta, ‘People's Diplomacy’, 60.

35 Ibid.

36 For an illuminating case of people's diplomacy, see Barrett, Gordon, ‘China's “People's Diplomacy” and the Pugwash Conferences, 1957–1964’, Journal of Cold War Studies, 20, 1 (2018), 140–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 As William Turley pointed out in The Second Indochina War: A Concise Political and Military History (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield), 10, 11, the idea that Vietnam throughout history had been a victim, always threatened by invading nations, did not square well with the reality of it as an aggressive state constantly expanding southwards through war and occupation.

38 Brigham, Guerrilla Diplomacy, 24.

39 Ibid., 52.

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid., 80.

42 Ibid., 52.

43 See Armstrong, J.D., Revolutionary Diplomacy: Chinese Foreign Policy and the United Front Doctrine (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)Google Scholar and Shultz, Richard H. Jr. The Soviet Union and Revolutionary Warfare: Principles, Practices, and Regional Comparisons (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1988)Google Scholar for accounts of Chinese and Soviet diplomatic warfare along these lines.

44 Lien-Hang Nguyen, Hanoi's War, 183.

45 Brigham, Guerrilla Diplomacy, 91–2.

46 Kilander, Vietnam var nära, 296.

47 Ibid., 154.

48 Vietnambulletinen, 1–2 (1967), 44–7.

49 See Asselin, Pierre, Vietnam's American War: A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 143Google Scholar.

50 Vietnambulletinen, 1–2 (1967), 44–7.

51 Ibid., 44.

52 ‘The World supports our people to win over the American invaders. Sweden and Finland organised the “Vietnam Week.”’ Nhân Dân, 15 Oct. 1966. ‘Taking part in this group is Ms. Sara Lidman, a famous journalist who had come to Vietnam, the anti-fascist playwright Peter Weiss and many others’ it further reported.

53 Ibid.

54 Ibid.

55 Vietnambulletinen, 1–2 (1967), 63–8.

56 Ibid.

57 Kilander, Vietnam var nära, 113.

58 Salomon, Rebeller, 97.

59 Salomon, Rebeller, 99.

60 A report on the embassy propaganda work about the Vietnam War sent to Beijing, June 1965. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archives, Beijing. Document No 110-01842-02, 2.

61 Ibid.

62 Ibid., 3.

63 Ibid.

64 Scott, Swedish Social Democracy, 62.

65 Ibid., 272.

66 Ali, Tariq, Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties (London: Verso Books, 2018), 113Google Scholar.

67 Klinghoffer, Arthur Jay and Klinghoffer, Judith Apter, International Citizens’ Tribunals: Mobilizing Public Opinion to Advance Human Rights (New York: Palgrave, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68 For background on the tribunal and Hanoi's part in it, see Mehta, Harish C., ‘North Vietnam's Informal Diplomacy with Bertrand Russell: Peace Activism and the International War Crimes Tribunal’, Peace & Change, 37, 1 (2012), 64–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

69 Fredrik Logevall, ‘The ASPEN Channel and the Problem of the Bombing’, in Lloyd C. Gardner, ed., The Search for Peace in Vietnam, 1964–1968 (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2005), 433.

70 For more on how references to Hitler and the Holocaust were made constantly around this time, see Johansson, Perry, ‘Resistance and Repetition: The Holocaust in the Art, Propaganda, and Political Discourse of Vietnam War Protests’, Cultural History, 10, 1 (2021)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

71 Logevall, Fredrik, ‘The Swedish American Conflict over Vietnam’, Diplomatic History, 17, 3 (1993), 111–132CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

72 Mehta, ‘People's Diplomacy’, 211.

73 Ibid., 227.

74 Ibid., 211.

75 For the victims and their testimonials see Peter Limqueco and Peter Weiss, eds., Prevent the Crime of Silence: Reports from the Sessions of the International War Crimes Tribunal Founded by Bertrand Russell (London: Allen Lane, 1971).

76 Nhân Dân, of course, reported from the Stockholm tribunal in a number of articles.

77 Kilander, Vietnam var nära, 118. Although the Americans did their best to ignore the tribunal, it was widely publicised, covered by some ten television outlets and 200 journalists.

78 Alf Morten Jerve, Irene Nörlund and Astri Suhrke, Nguyen Thanh Ha, A Leap of Faith: A Story of Swedish Aid and Paper Production in Vietnam – the Bai Bang Project, 1969–1996 (Stockholm: SIDA, 1999), 31.

79 There is no place in this article to discuss these ten conferences. They instead will be dealt with in a forthcoming article.

80 ‘Over the course of the MHCHAOS program, there have been approximately 20 important areas of operational interest, which at the present time have been reduced to around ten: Paris, Stockholm, Brussels, Dar es Salaam, Conakry, Algiers, Mexico City, Santiago, Ottawa and Hong Kong’, a two-page CIA document dated 8 May 1973 spelled out. See: https://www.cia.gov/open/Family%20Jewels.pdf. [accessed 5 Mar. 2020].

81 Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetarepartis arkiv housed in Arbetarrörelsens Arkiv och Bibliotek, Stockholm. Document F 02 D:10.

82 Scott, Swedish Social Democracy, 93.

83 ‘On the evening of Feb. 21, thousands of Swedish people marched with torches through the streets of Sweden to protest against America's imperialist war in Vietnam’, Nhân Dân, 27 Feb. 1968, 4.

84 Translation of the speech of Minister of Education Palme, delivered at the Vietnam demonstration on 21 Feb. 1968. See http://www.olofpalme.org/wp-content/dokument/680221c_vietnamdemonstration.pdf. [accessed 5 Mar. 2020].

85 ‘Our government representative paid a visit to Sweden – The Viet Nam News Agency’, Nhân Dân, 6 Mar. 1968, 4.

86 At the time of the Tet Offensive, the Soviet Union had stepped up to become the main benefactor of Hanoi, which had become increasingly suspicious of China's real motives.

87 Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Handwritten note by Jenny Resch to Sköld Peter Matthis and Rolf Bucht (no date), the international secretariat of DFFG, korrespondens.

88 In an otherwise masterful study, Brigham wrongly claims that the prime minister, Tage Erlander, ‘faced a serious challenge from Olof Palme, who attacked Erlander for not backing the NLF’ and that ‘one year later Erlander and de Gaulle suffered political defeat at the hands of the NLF’. Brigham, Guerrilla Diplomacy, 82, 83.

89 With Indochina's French colonial history – and in light of President de Gaulle's criticism of American foreign policy – it made sense for the NLF to set up its only other Western information bureau in Paris, simultaneously with the one in Stockholm.

90 Brigham, Guerrilla Diplomacy, 80.

91 Ibid. Foreign Minister Torsten Nilsson was, of course, referring to the United States.

92 Åselius, Vietnamkriget, 498.

93 Brigham, Guerrilla Diplomacy, 80.

94 Ibid.

95 De förenade FNL gruppernas arkiv housed in the Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Mats Widgren to Rolf Bucht (no date), international secretariat of DFFG, korrespondens.

96 See Erlandsson, Johan, Desertörerna (Stockholm: Carlsson, 2016), 64Google Scholar.

97 De förenade FNL gruppernas arkiv housed in the Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Letter to SDS, West Germany, from Rolf Bucht, international secretary DFFG, korrespondens.

98 Ibid.

99 For more on Lidman in Hanoi, see Perry Johansson, ‘Sara Lidman: A Case study of Beijing's and Hanoi's Use of Foreigners during the Vietnam War’, Journal of Cold War Studies (forthcoming).

100 Sara Lidman Archives, Umeå Universitetsbibliotek, Umeå. Author's translation from Lidman's Swedish version of the speech.

101 Åselius, Vietnamkriget, 304.

102 De förenade FNL gruppernas arkiv housed in the Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Letter from Joel Miller, international secretary of DFFG, 12 Sept. 1972, korrespondens, 1970–1974.

103 Brigham, Guerrilla Diplomacy, 80.

104 Eriksson, Erik, Jag såg kärleken och döden (Stockholm: Ordupplaget, 2008), 189Google Scholar.

105 Ibid.

106 Ibid.

107 Ibid., 190. Again he was told not to pass the information on.

108 See Åselius, Vietnamkriget, or Björk, Kaj, Vägen till Indokina (Stockholm: Atlas, 2003)Google Scholar.

109 Åselius, Vietnamkriget, 503.

110 ‘Welcoming Foreign Minister Nguyễn Thị Bình at the Swedish Social Democratic Party Congress’, Nhân Dân, 3 Oct. 1972, 4. Nguyễn Thị Bình arrived in Stockholm together with other representatives of the National Liberation Front, led by Minister of Culture Hoàng Minh Giám.

111 Ibid.

112 Ibid.

113 Ibid.

114 Björk, Vägen till Indokina, 208.

115 Möller, Sverige och Vietnamkriget, 224.

116 Ibid.

117 Brigham, Guerrilla Diplomacy, 23.

118 ‘Welcoming Foreign Minister Nguyễn Thị Bình’, Nhân Dân.

119 Olof Palme – Hanoi Speech 1972, see http://www.olofpalme.org/wp-content/dokument/721223a_hanoi_julen_1972.pdf [accessed 5 Mar. 2020].

120 Möller, Sverige och Vietnamkriget, 325.

121 Lien-Hang Nguyen, Hanoi's War, 296.

122 Jerve et al., A Leap of Faith, 30

123 Kilander, Vietnam var nära, 296.

124 Ibid.

125 Annelie Bränström Öhman, Stilens munterhet: Sara Lidmans författardagböcker från Missenträsk 1975–1985 (Stockholm: Albert Bonniers förlag, 2014), 305.