American Propaganda, Swedish Labor, and the Swedish Press in the Cold War: The United States Information Agency (USIA) and Co-Production of U.S. Hegemony in Sweden during the 1950s and 1960s

Abstract

This article deals with the propaganda by the United States Information Agency (USIA), and its local United States Information Service (USIS) office vis-à-vis the Swedish labor movement and the Swedish press in the 1950s and 1960s. The article investigates what kind of relationship the USIS had with Swedish labor and Swedish newspapers and argues that labor organizations and newspaper editors voluntarily acted as propaganda targets and outlets for the United States, that is, co-produced US hegemony in Sweden, by actively seeking to make the Swedish public more positive towards the United States. The USIS was generally quite successful in placing its propaganda in the newspapers and in establishing close and productive relationships with the Swedish labor organizations. The article also relates instances of resistance to the USIS' propaganda and the tactics and strategies used by the Americans to counter criticism of US policy in the labor media. The article is the first scholarly study of how the United States used Swedish labor and newspapers in the battle for the hearts and minds of the Swedish public during the cold war, as well as the first to use the concept of co-production in a Swedish context.