Dick Hubert’s Worldview: Witnessing a major historical moment: long neutral Sweden finally joins NATO
March 14, 2024 at 1:40 a.m.
It’s a moment in history I never dreamed, as a young man, I would ever see.
And now we can all see it on YouTube if you missed it at the beginning of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech last Thursday night.
In a nod to the presence in the balcony of Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Biden acknowledged the historic decision of Sweden joining NATO.
Abandoning two centuries of neutrality, Sweden is now a NATO partner, committed to taking a stand against Russian aggression in Sweden’s Baltic backyard.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and threats to do the same against Sweden’s Baltic Sea neighbors provided the decisive factor in changing Swedish policy.
NATO’s Article Five (an attack against one member is an attack against all members) means NATO can now count on Sweden’s military.
Despite its image in this country as a liberal “socialized” state, Sweden has long had universal military training and a significant military industrial complex for a country its size. Only Israel competes with them in this category (small population; big defense industry).
And that brings me back to 1960.
In my senior year in college, I applied for and won a Swedish Government Fellowship—Sweden’s answer (as a neutral country) to the Fulbright Scholarships.
My prize was an all-expense-paid trip to Sweden, to be a student of International Politics at the University of Stockholm.
I wanted to understand how this country, which during World War II had famously (and horrifically) let Nazi troops move through its territory to invade Norway (in the process earning the long-term enmity of its Scandinavian neighbor), could have the determination and resources to be “neutral” in a very dangerous world.
Shortly after arrival I answered an inquiry by a producer at Swedish television looking for an American voice to narrate a government tourist film aimed at U.S. audiences.
I got the job, and immediately found myself in the broadcast environment of the International Service of Swedish Radio (Sveriges Radio Utlandsprogrammet), where I met an Englishman known to every Swede as their TV English instructor, Sidney Coulson.
Within days I sold the International Service on my producing and hosting a weekly program (Dick Hubert in Stockholm) featuring interviews and stories that caught my eye.
At the same time Coulson, who was swamped with invitations to speak in person all over the country, asked me if I’d be interested in taking the overflow of offers he received where only transportation and hotel and meals were covered, no speaking fees. I jumped at the chance.
Needless to say, my academic efforts suffered completely, while my professional resume blossomed.
As did my understanding of Sweden’s unique position in post-World War II Europe.
For one thing, I was awed by the bomb shelters the government had carved into rock formations near populated centers.
The bomb shelter I most remember in Stockholm was a parking garage in peaceful times which could quickly be turned into what was hoped to be a refuge from a Soviet nuclear attack (yes, even in those days the Russians, then the Soviet Union, were regarded as a prime military threat).
In the north, I toured the underground iron mines in Kiruna, the backbone of a steel industry which produced weapons systems. (Today Kiruna is best known for Europe's largest deposit of rare earth metals.)
On a tour of the Swedish coastline, submarine bases carved into rock formations (and presumably safe from aerial and missile attack) were pointed out to me.
At the time Sweden had two car companies (Volvo and Saab), with Saab also producing fearsome fighter jets.
Today Saab makes the JAS 35 Gripen, one of the most sophisticated fighter jets in the world. That JAS 35 was part of the negotiations that led to Hungary under Viktor Orban supporting Sweden’s admission to NATO—in the process Orban solidified a deal for Grippen jets.
But again—the Swedish military-industrial complex was necessary for Sweden’s “neutral” stance. That position changed dramatically with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Now those Grippen jets, that trained military, that Baltic coastline—they’re all in NATO’s corner.
For me, it’s a “can’t believe it’s true” moment.
Now, take a good long hard look at that map of NATO’s borders accompanying this column.
The most dangerous weak link: Ukraine.
Hopefully I can live long enough to see Ukraine in the European Union, and then in NATO.
The Russian bear needs to be caged.
Dick Hubert, a retired television news producer-writer-reporter living in Rye Brook, has been honored with the Peabody Award, the DuPont Columbia Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Journalism Award.
Editor’s Note: This column, written by Dick Hubert, represents his opinion and not that of this newspaper.
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