In 1946, Sweden had not yet chosen sides in the emerging Cold War. Leading members of the Swedish Social Democrat government, primarily the powerful Foreign Minister Östen Undén, distrusted the Western democracies and regarded the Soviet Union as a viable protector.
Swedish intelligence had cooperated with its Western counterparts during the Second World War. After the war American intelligence was represented in Sweden by a Strategic Services Unit (SSU), whose Chief of Station in Stockholm was Charles E. Higdon. In August 1946, when the American intelligence chiefs discussed cooperation with the European countries, they were not yet sure of which side Sweden would choose, West or East: “They will either want to work with us or with the Russians,” one of them concluded.
Publications of Michael Fredholm
