'Neutral on our Side': Us Policy towards Sweden during the Eisenhower Administration

Abstract

This article examines the Eisenhower administration's policy vis-à-vis a militarily nonaligned Sweden. Based on previously unused US sources, this article argues that Washington wholly accepted Swedish armed neutrality and regarded it as the policy that best served US aims. It helped to keep Scandinavia an area of low level superpower tension, which enabled the two countries to partake in 'under-the-table' military cooperation. Moreover, since Swedish guns were only pointing in an eastward direction, it was in the US interest to ensure that Sweden was as militarily strong as possible. This was to be achieved by pursing an arms-friendly policy. As a result of this twin-track approach, Washington ensured that Sweden remained the West's neutral first line of defence in the Scandinavian region.