The Washington Post--Sunday, March 9, 1986

[L.C.]

Henry Kissinger

# ‘Olof Palme and I Were Friends’

The following is the eulogy delivered by Henry Kissinger at a memorial service on Friday at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington for Sweden's prime minister, Olof Palme.

Olof Palme and I were friends. And often we found ourselves on opposite sides of issues. I mention our disagreements because I do not want to burden Olof Palme's memory with unnecessary controversies. I stress my personal feelings because they elevated my life.

The anguish and passions of the Vietnam period prevented a meeting with Olof Palme for most of the years we both held public office. Finally in 1976 Palme invited me to visit Sweden. We had a long private dinner; a more official meeting the next morning. It was clear immediately that Palme was an extraordinary personality. So many leaders are interesting primarily because of the power they wield. Palme was significant apart from his official function. His knowledge, his subtlety and his commitment answered the perennial question whether an individual can make a difference. A small, neutral country geographically at the periphery of events achieved an influence commensurate with the moral and intellectual dimension of its prime minister far beyond the traditional calculations of power.

Shortly after that first meeting, Palme and I left office within months of each other. Strangely in view of what had gone before we maintained an increasingly frequent and close contact. Neither of us ever visited the other's country without meeting for extended conversations. I do not presume to speak for Palme, but my own thinking, I felt, was not complete without the benefit of Palme's insight, perspective and devotion.

In the end, transcending all controversies, Palme's passion was for the best in Western values. Wherever peace was threatened or justice was denied or freedom was in jeopardy —in the Middle East, in Central America, in South Africa, on the issue of nuclear weapons —Palme was to be found at the cutting edge of the debate. Though he often carried placards he was never content with slogans. He strove tenaciously to find solutions to world problems—many far distant from his own country—always intelligently, never yielding to the counsels of tactical prudence. For his passion was concentrated on making the free peoples worthy of the values they avowed. It is the measure of his integrity that not even his severest critics challenged the aspiration of this Swedish leader to act as a universal conscience. Pragmatists might consider him a romantic for believing unreservedly in man's perfectibility. But then every great achievement was a dream before it became a reality;

cathedrals are not brought into being by skeptics.

Olof Palme—once one knew him—was a gentle, caring and thoughtful friend. When I was in the hospital after surgery he interrupted his mediation of the Iran-Iraq war to call from some airport or other for a long and sensitive conversation. On the occasion of my attendance at a private conference in Sweden, some local groups used my chairmanship of the Bipartisan Commission on Central America to organize a large demonstration in front of the hotel. Palme—once again prime minister—took me ostentatiously to lunch at a public restaurant at the same time—characteristically without security—though his personal sympathies were hardly on the side of the policies being attacked, to put it mildly.

As the years went, by I came to think of Olof Palme more and more as a sentinel in the ramparts of freedom warning, cajoling, holding aloft a standard which contributed crucially to dialectic by which liberty and human dignity achieve their meaning. One could debate Olof Palme's answers; it was not possible to ignore his questions.

So for all whose lives Olof Palme touched, the world has become a far lonelier place. It has been a privilege to be Olof Palme's contemporary. It has been an honor to know Olof Palme as a man.

> movement is to force the Sandinistas into respecting what they promised as the basis of pluralism in Nicaragua.”

Sandinistas are forbidding him to celebrate masses in the open or to have processions.

*Q: Do you think nonetheless that you can bring the Sandinistas into a negotiation?*

*A:* Yes. We must exert every possible effort to try to achieve that. I am not ignoring that you seldom see a communist entering into an agreement, let alone living by it. But we must make an effort.

*Q: And otherwise military victory is the essential purpose of your movement?*

*A:* No, No, no, no, no, no. The essential purpose of our movement is to force the Sandinistas into respecting what they promised as the basis of pluralism in Nicaragua.

*Q: Even though pluralism will mean that the Sandinistas will lose a monopoly of political power?*

*A:* Absolutely. We feel that no party is entitled to having a monopoly of the organs of the state.

*Q: Why is it that the Contadora countries—eight Latin*

But at the same time we feel that it's about time that a deadline be given to the Sandinistas. Let's say you give them 75 days or so. If you do not give an answer to this proposal, then we should be entitled to receive military aid.

Are you aware of the fact that about a month ago six political parties inside Nicaragua—one being the Independent Liberal Party of Virgilio Godoy—made this proposal to the Sandinistas: a ceasefire, an amnesty, restitution of all civil rights and a nonparty agreement for general elections?

What was the response of the Sandinista government? “It won’t work.” Officially the government and Barricada, the party newspaper, attacked this as trying to undermine the constitutional order. You see, that’s the problem. The Sandinistas do not want to talk to Nicaraguans.

Now, we are in favor of the Duarte proposal [made by Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte on March 4]. I think it sounds fine. There would be three diologues going on: one between Duarte and his own opposition, one between the Sandinistas and the opposition and one between Washington and Managua. We support that, we back it up.

The problem is that the Sandinistas do not want to have negotiations with... If they don't want to, I understand. I understand that they don't want to speak with the people who have anything to do with armed groups. All right. We would be willing to delegate to the internal parties inside Nicaragua for such a dialogue.

yes, is a former member of the National Guard, and so are several others, including the largest number in the inner staff. But if you take into account the overall spectrum of the rebel forces, the former members of the National Guard are outnumbered immensely by campesinos and by Sandinistas who deserted the Sandinista army.

And besides, I assure you that those former members of the National Guard in the rebel forces are aware of the need for democracy and are aware of the need to forget about the past and to think instead of the new Nicaragua.

*Q: In the Philippines, Mrs. Aquino could demonstrate that she had a very moral basis, a very democratic basis to her political claims. She clearly had a majority in the country. Can you make any similar claim?*

*A:* I think you have to be very careful when you draw parallels. In the Philippines you had more or less an autonomous army. True, it was tremendously influenced by dictator Marcos, but it was composed of a large number of West Point graduates, and you saw how they moved against Marcos and sided with Mrs. Aquino.

In Nicaragua you don't have that. In Nicaragua the grip of the Sandinistas on society is tremendous. The army is political; they control it. There is fanaticism in this. You have the various committees, food rationing cards, all sorts of controls.

I'm not suggesting that in Nicaragua you cannot ever have a situation of popular uprising. We might. But what I underscore is that it's much more difficult to have a

Close to Home

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## INSIDESWEDEN

# Sweden mourns

A crowd of more than 10,000 people gathered at Sergels Torg in the heart of Stockholm's business district to honor the memory of their fallen Prime Minister. As this special memorial issue of Inside Sweden went to press, Olof Palme's assassin had not yet been found and his motive remained unknown. PHOTO: HÄKAN LINDGREN.

Sweden, March 1, 1986. A chilling wind swept across the land.

The night before, Prime Minister Olof Palme had been assassinated as he and his wife Lisbet walked along a downtown Stockholm street on their way home from a movie.

Political violence had arrived in Sweden. The whole nation was shocked, paralyzed, in mourning.

People gathered for memorial observations on city squares and in churches. The sidewalk where Olof Palme had been gunned down was covered with hundreds of flowers. It was never necessary to proclaim national mourning. It had already

broken out spontaneously.

Condolences arrived from leaders throughout the world. Perhaps only then did we really begin to understand Olof Palme's international stature, his unique position in the Third World in particular but also the respect he had created for himself and for Sweden among the major powers and in the United Nations.

Olof Palme had spoken out on justice, freedom, peace and disarmament. And we realized that the world had listened.

Only two weeks earlier, the Prime Minister had given a speech paying homage to the memory of Mrs. Alva Myrdal, who died on February 1 after a long life of

service to the causes of social equality and peace.

Alva Myrdal lived a long, full life. Olof Palme was snatched away from us in mid-career.

Olof Palme lived and moved close to the people. The heritage of social peace and welfare that we regard as typically Swedish was something he wanted other countries to share.

Sweden is in mourning, and perhaps our country has become a little smaller. But the ideas of Alva Myrdal and Olof Palme survive, and they will be passed on to new generations. ☐

Tommy Svensson

# The Prime Minister who dared to hitchhike

By Sven Lindqvist

Is it really true? It seems impossible, as unreal as a stage play murder. When was a leading Swedish statesman last assassinated? Wasn't it when King Gustav III died from an assassin's bullet during a masked ball in 1792? The bloodstained sidewalk on Sveavägen seems just as unreal.

The Prime Minister of Sweden – assassinated while trudging through the slush on the way between a movie house and the Stockholm subway. He took such risks deliberately. "To be able to live at all, you've also got to take the risk of dying." I can see him in front of me as he said this, sitting at our kitchen table.

He told me how the Security Police car he was once riding in had broke down on the way to Stockholm International Airport at Arlanda. He had to make it in time for a flight. In the old 1950s manner, he stood by the roadside and stuck his thumb out. A car stopped, and while the horrified security police stayed behind, Olof Palme continued out to Arlanda alone with a total stranger – an Iraqi, or maybe it was an Iranian. I don't really remember.

It pleased me greatly that Sweden had a Prime Minister who had hitchhiked to Arlanda. But of course he was taking a risk.

## Source of security

During his first year as Prime Minister, Palme left his home telephone number in

Olof Palme died because he wanted to be able to continue being one of us, our equal. PHOTO: BOSSE SCHREIBER.

the Stockholm directory. I remember how incredulous Richard Gott of the British newspaper *The Guardian* was when he saw me step into a telephone booth, look up the Prime Minister in the phone book and dial his home number – and Palme picked up the phone himself and immediately agreed to talk. Richard was not accustomed to that kind of direct contact between rulers and ruled.

I remember the enormous security force surrounding Palme when we traveled together in Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba during the mid-1970s. It felt like an insuf-

ferable strait jacket to be surrounded all the time by wailing police sirens and trigger-happy bodyguards. Living constantly with that kind of retiné must change people, blocking the thousands of "capillaries" that connect us with our surroundings.

In order not to lose your human touch, you need the courage to leave your Government bunker and go out to a movie one evening like an ordinary person, then trudge through the melting snow on your way to the subway.

Olof Palme was no ordinary person, of course. He was an unusual phenomenon – an intellectual Prime Minister. Where do you find these if you look around you in other countries? In my opinion, Palme's intellectuality often got in his way as a politician. You could see in his eyes that he always had several different possible answers to choose from when fielding a question. That scared people. It made them distrustful.

To me, it was a source of security. Indeed, it was a great source of security to know that if his policies were wrong – which I often thought they were – in any event it was not because the Prime Minister was lacking in mental capacity or didn't fathom the intellectual rules of the game.

On many occasions, Olof Palme has spoken straight from my own heart. Especially when voicing the legitimate demands of developing countries and when – as in the case of Vietnam or Afghanistan – defending the rights of small states against aggression by the major powers. That was what

we talked about in early February when I met him for the last time. Before his scheduled trip to Moscow, he gave a long interview to the magazine *Afghanistamytی* (Afghanistan News) and expressed his loathing for the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan. Perhaps this wasn't such a sensible thing for him to do, but it was courageous.

## Courageous

For if anything, Palme was a courageous person. I can see him in front of me, dressed in a knee-length fur coat with the soft brown pelt turned out. With his lively eyes, he looked like an overgrown squirrel. The impression was irresistibly comical. No man who was concerned about looking dignified would dare dress like that.

That was what I liked the very best about him. The fact that he never got on his high horse. The fact that he shared a set of intellectual values which stated that the reasons we give are more important than the positions we adopt. He didn't want to become the Olof Palme Position. To avoid that, he trudged through the slush on the way to the subway, just like the rest of us. It was the right thing to do, even if it all ended with a pool of blood in the snow.

We have lost our only great political leader in Sweden. He died because he wanted to be able to continue being one of us, our equal. ☐

Sven Lindqvist is a writer. This article appeared in the Stockholm newspaper *Dagen* Nyheter.

INSIDSWEDEN

L:J

3

Olof Palme's ideas were
Swedish, but his perspective
was global

Olof Palme with his wife Lisbet, who was slightly wounded when the Prime Minister was assassinated. PHOTO: LEIF ENGBERG.

by Gunnar Fredriksson

In Western democracies, Palme represented the concept of the potential of democratic progress in a hostile world. His ideas were basically Swedish, but his perspective was global.

A tremendous tragedy has occurred in Swedish public life. This is the most tragic political assassination in our history.

The man who represented peaceful democratic change, one of the most passionate supporters of progress through democratic persuasion, has fallen victim to political violence of a kind we have not previously experienced in our country.

Encountered
violence in Prague

I first met Palme in 1958. In the spring of that year, he visited Lund as secretary to Prime Minister Tage Erlander, whose yearly meeting with students from his alma mater, the University of Lund, were just then becoming a tradition.

In 1956 Olof Palme had helped produce one of the most important ideological articles of the 1950s in Swedish politics, entitled "The Discontent of Rising Expectations".

Palme heard a lot about discontent during his life. But he always regarded the necessary discontent in a democratic society as constructive.

He had begun his political career as a student leader. One of his first bitter experiences was a meeting with student leaders in Prague in 1948. Social Democratic speakers there were vehemently booed and violently silenced. To Palme, it was a crucial experience.

Time and again, he recalled this glimpse at how violence is used to silence meaningful debate and the democratic process.

In the early 1950s, Palme took a trip to Asia as a student leader. He departed from the agreed travel route and strolled through the Asian slums with open, intelligent eyes, and he never forgot it.

The big picture

I often heard Palme tell about these adventures. No one who later followed his argu-

Olof Palme was the most prominent politician in modern Swedish history. Today he stands out as our only political leader of genuine international importance.

ments can understand anything about his insights into Third World problems without realizing what these experiences at a sensitive age meant to him.

Along came Tage Erlander during this period and asked "Is Palme a Social Democrat?" That led to a political career.

Palme became one of the most valuable and insightful of Erlander's staff members. He could handle day-to-day political issues, administrative or strategic, and at the same time he could see the big picture, without which politics is never really meaningful.

Olof Palme was always extremely intensive in his arguments. He might still have had his doubts, but once he had made up his mind, he knew what he wanted and he could see the consequences in a very long perspective.

I met Palme now and again over a period of many years, and I have always been amazed at the image of him that his political opponents have presented. If Palme had lived, anyone who wanted to understand would have gained a better picture of his humanity, his sense of humor and his moral integrity.

When Palme visited the Social Democratic student club in Lund during the

years when those of us in my generation were shaping our political views, he used to explain the position of the Left in one European country after the other. He was often but not always optimistic. He always saw the big picture—on global development issues, on disarmament issues, on everything that had to do with development. To him, both Leftist and Rightist dictatorships were equally repulsive.

He was nervous then

In Palme's concept of Social Democracy, democracy came first and socialism second. His socialism was no more remarkable than that of Per Albin Hansson or Hjalmar Branting, yet it was a brand of socialism that stirred the imagination.

It was continuously attacked by ideologists of the Right and Left, most recently by the so-called neoconservatives.

We all remember when Palme was elected party chairman at the Social Democratic Party congress of 1969. I know that he was very nervous. He had really not expected anything like this.

He actually thought that he was just an efficient cabinet minister, not the man to head the Government. Now he took over

the chairmanship of the party in a situation where issues of social equality were in the forefront.

Everyone who dealt with Palme when he was Minister of Transport or Minister of Education can testify that he was an extremely efficient, quick and reliable administrator.

For example I have heard the most prominent shipowners, whose political values certainly differ completely from his, tell how smoothly Palme—as Minister of Transport—could handle issues that concerned them, even when they disagreed.

The very speed of Palme's intellect was an adventure in itself.

You had no chance to doze as he spoke. He often tripped over the unnecessary words, impatiently. There were never dull patches in his conversation.

He seemed to like talking with journalists. He could put them in a good mood or a bad mood, but they were never indifferent. He read prodigiously, and one wondered how he found the time. But he could quote both literary and political sources and he had his own opinions on the thinkers he so quickly penetrated.

Stood for
Swedish morality

The last time I spoke with Palme, the topic was neoconservatism. He regarded it as a form of selfishness and he believed that if it would suffer a defeat in any country, that it would be in Sweden.

But for all of us today, Palme is still not primarily a politician who more or less defeated various opponents. In the light of history, such things are secondary, in spite of everything.

Olof Palme stood for a very traditional Swedish political morality, the preservation of shared values, the protection of peaceful development, a society characterized by calm and carefully crafted democratic solutions, where political assassinations should be the most alien concept of all. ☐

Gunnar Fredriksson is a journalist and former editor-in-chief of the Stockholm evening newspaper Aftonbladet, in which this article appeared.

4

INSIDSWEDEN

LC

# We share the same world

Let me first of all thank Prime Minister Gandhi for having invited us all here for this joint meeting about the follow-up of the initiative which was launched last year by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi together with five colleagues from other countries.

I had the privilege of meeting the late Prime Minister on several occasions and talking with her about many issues, particularly concerning the work for peace. Her activities in this field, not least as chairman of the non-aligned movement, were deeply respected by all of us. Her contribution to the initiative that we are continuing today was of decisive importance. Let me therefore also say that we were very appreciative of the fact that the new Prime Minister of India so promptly indicated that he personally wished to continue to pursue the initiative.

I come from a small nation in northern Europe which has been fortunate enough to live in peace for more than 170 years. We believe that our long peace can be explained in part by our policy of non-violence: non-participation in alliances in peacetime, aiming at neutrality in the event of war. We also believe that this policy has contributed to the long period of stability in northern Europe.

Prime Minister Olof Palme's address at the Five Continent meeting in New Delhi, January 28, 1985.

fateful prospect of an accelerating arms race in outer space.

What makes the nuclear age unique is that we have reached a stage where we are able to destroy not only ourselves but also everyone and everything which would come after us. All of human civilization, so rich and so fantastic, developed over thousands of years of human efforts, with its fine arts, its literature, its architecture and traditions, all of our life – all this might quite simply come to an end because of the folly of man.

We have come together here today, from five continents, to manifest that this civilization does not belong to only one or five nations. It belongs to all nations, to all peoples, to present as well as to future generations.

We who are meeting here today come from different parts of the globe, with differences in cultural, social and political systems. But we are united in the endeavor to protect human civilization. It is simply not acceptable that the future of

my government attaches great importance to all efforts to uphold and strengthen the non-proliferation regime, particularly in the light of this year's NPT review conference.

Having said this, I want to underline that the major responsibility lies with the two nations which possess by far the largest share of these weapons.

It is therefore to be welcomed that the Soviet Union and the United States have agreed in Geneva to come together for negotiations later this spring.

In this situation it is of even greater importance that we express our deep concern. It must be made clear that what the Soviet Union and the United States will discuss is not a matter for them alone. The issues on the negotiating table are a question for all of us.

We will not be sitting at that table. But we will continue to express our views, and to put forward our demands. And we take a new step with the issuing of our new joint declaration.

The agreed objective of the new negotiations is said to be to prevent an arms race in space and terminate it on earth, ultimately to completely eliminate nuclear arms everywhere. We strongly support this objective, and expect that it will guide the negotiators.

It is, however, one thing to agree to negotiate and to define an objective. It is another thing to agree on results. And we know from past negotiations that the results – if any – have been most unsatisfactory from the non-nuclears’ point of view. In reality, most of the arms control agreements have not lead to disarmament.

This is no longer sufficient.

plosions. That is more than one a week, and all five nuclear weapon states carried out such tests.

However, all other countries also have a responsibility.

The initiative we launched in May last year is directed perhaps as much to public opinion as to the nuclear weapon states. We have been encouraged by the support that last year's appeal received from popular movements, political leaders, trade unions and religious leaders around the world. We will continue to call attention to the right of the non-nuclears to be relieved of the threat of nuclear weapons.

We will also take the message here from Delhi to the nuclear weapon states themselves and their representatives.

And we will invite leaders of other non-nuclear nations to join our appeal for a halt to the nuclear arms race.

There is one institution were we can all come together – nuclears as well as non-nuclears. That is the United Nations, which today is the only forum available for working together for our common security.

I hope that this year's 40th anniversary of the United Nations can be used for a manifestation of the concern of all nations over the arms race. And perhaps we could meet there in connection with the anniversary, to stress the role of the United Nations and to join leaders from other countries in a forceful expression of our basic theme here in Delhi.

That theme is clear and simple. Peace and world security are a global responsibility. They cannot be built on mutual distrust, or on threats of collective suicide.

In the past, security has been sought by ever-increasing armaments and by mu-

> "We have come together here today, from five continents, to manifest that this civilization does not belong to only one or two or five nations. It belongs to all nations, to all peoples, to present as well as to future generations."

But in the age of nuclear weapons, security cannot be achieved in a restricted regional perspective. The nuclear age, soon entering its fifth decade, has brought a unique threat to all of mankind. Not only are more people than ever before threatened by the existing weapons, not only are more resources taken away from urgent civilian demands than ever before. What is now at stake is quite simply the future of our civilization.

According to the United Nations charter, every nation has a right to protect itself from attacks by others, a right to self-defense. That right applies to all of us, large or small.

However, the arsenals of the nuclear weapon states go far beyond what could ever be motivated by this right of self-defense. When two nations have the capacity to destroy the whole world fifty times over, it is no longer a matter of self-defense. What it means, in the nuclear age, is that they threaten the very existence of all of us, even those who live in the countries farthest away from the areas of conflict. It is not only a question of survival for the citizens of the countries which possess these weapons. It is ultimately a question of the survival of all of us on this planet, no matter where we live.

Nuclear weapons can cause not only immediate and direct destruction on an unprecedented scale, as witnessed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to reports from many scientists in different countries, we would all suffer from the disastrous effects of a nuclear winter, which might in the end extinguish all life on earth. And as if the earth were not enough, we are now also faced with the

this civilization lies in the hands of only five nuclear weapon states. The principle of self-determination must mean that we, the non-nuclear weapon states, have an equal right to be masters of our own destiny. This right is being circumscribed by the threat of use of weapons which would bring death and destruction to all peoples. Our message today is that we can never accept an order which in a way resembles a colonial system where the ultimate fate of other nations is determined by a few dominant nuclear powers.

We, the non-nuclears, must also have a say. We must have the right to demand that nuclear weapons never be used, that the nuclear arms race come to a halt, and that the nuclear weapon states reach an early agreement on substantial reductions in their nuclear arsenals.

This was also the essence of the joint declaration which we made public in May last year. Coming from a nation which has pursued these ideas for many years – the United Nations and in the international debate – I very much welcomed the opportunity to join with five respected and concerned government leaders from different continents in this common appeal.

The appeal itself was directed to all five nuclear weapons states. Even if the arsenals of some of them are smaller than some others, that does not relieve them from the awesome responsibility of any state possessing such means of mass destruction. This responsibility should also be realized by every state now considering the possibility of developing their own nuclear weapons. By acquiring such weapons, they would not enhance their own security; instead the security for all of us would be diminished. For that reason

> "Peace and world security are a global responsibility. They cannot be built on mutual distrust, or on threats of collective suicide."

We have the right to expect more this time.

We have the right to expect an agreement on substantial reductions of the nuclear arsenals.

We have the right to expect that outer space will be kept clean from military competition. And this is not a question for just one of the superpowers. Over 2,000 militarily oriented satellites have already been launched by these two countries. They have both started to acquire a substantial capacity for anti-satellite warfare.

Finally, we have the right to expect that all nuclear testing will be terminated without further delay. In 1984 alone, the Swedish National Defense Research Institute detected 53 presumed nuclear ex-

tual threats, by deterrence. But this has only increased the insecurity of people. It shows that it is an illusion to believe that a search for a fool-proof defense, through more and more advanced weapons systems, can give us a safer future. The only way to lasting security is through nuclear disarmament.

The people of this globe want the nuclear arms race to be reversed. Their voices, of both emotion and reason, must be closely listened to. And their demands for nuclear disarmament must finally be fulfilled.

We share the same world. We share the same future. The madness of the nuclear arms race is the common threat to this one future. Let us therefore work together. Let us join our efforts with peoples and nations all over the world. Now is the time to turn the course. Let us make 1985 the turning point. ☐

[L.C.]

Address by the Prime Minister, Mr Ingvar Carlsson, at
the funeral ceremony for Olof Palme at the Stockholm City Hall,

15 March 1986

We are gathered today at the bier of Olof Palme.

An abominable assassination has confronted us with the
cold, grim face of death. We stand united in anger and
grief.

But death is at the same time a reminder of life. And
Olof Palme's life is a poignant reminder of the chance
life gives us, a reminder that life can be like a radiant
smile, that the value of life is infinite.

* * *

With us today are friends from all parts of the world.
They bear witness to the fact that the grief and sense of
loss felt by us extend far beyond the borders of our
country.

We always grieve when we lose someone, although we know
that death is inevitable and comes to us all sooner or
later. Most of us have said a last farewell to someone
who has passed on after completing a long life's work.
Death is the natural end and we are ready for it when it
comes. But this is not the case here. Olof Palme's
strength was unabated, he was full of great and vigorous
enthusiasm. He also possessed the wisdom which only comes
from long experience. Olof Palme seemed indispensable to
us for a long time yet.

But suddenly he was cut down like a free and powerful
bird killed in full flight. Many of his best years were
thus taken from him, from us. This makes our grief harder
to bear, more sombre and bitter.

[L]

2

A few days ago I received a letter from Sigrid Fernström from Forsbacka, who delivers newspapers. This is what she wrote:

"I have delivered newspapers for 18 years. The early morning of March 1st was for me the hardest working day in all these years. Coming out at 4 o'clock on a cold, dark winter's night, not long out of bed but alert and ready for two hours' work, then seeing the terrible news in extra large letters on the front pages of the two newspapers I deliver was like seeing the ground disappear from underneath my feet. In spite of my state of shock this appalling news must be spread, and I, a link in the chain of distribution, must not fail my duty this morning. In my despair I thought of all the old age pensioners, who go early to bed and wake up early too, waiting for me. It hurt me so to have to bring this bad news in their loneliness."

I understand her message to be: We must not allow ourselves to be paralysed. We must find the strength to carry out our duties even on the hardest day of our lives. We must seek consolation so that we can overcome our grief.

This is not easy, but it is necessary. We must go on, we must see the light and meet life. This is what Olof Palme himself would have done in our position: he who was always on the move, always proceeding to new tasks and new objectives.

* * *

[2C]

3

We all have many different memories of Olof Palme. Some of them are of a physical nature, like his unruly hair which it seemed impossible to comb into place, the hopeless tie, the ceaseless dancing of his feet behind the rostrum when he made a speech.

Palme was close to us. Year after year we recognized his well-known figure in the streets, we heard and saw him on the radio and television - his vibrant voice, his face, a little more lined as the years passed, a little heavier and wiser, his piercing blue eyes.

And we remember all the times we saw him almost jumping up onto the platform to make speeches all over the country, all the autographs he wrote, all the people he met and spoke to and never forgot, full of intuitive respect as he was.

What the exaggerated picture of the polemicist highlighted by the television cameras did not convey was that Olof Palme's most faithful companions were laughter and cheerfulness. If humour is the most prominent characteristic of humanity, then Olof Palme was, in this respect too, profoundly human.

Other memories of Olof Palme vary from individual to individual. This is of course because, being human beings, we saw him with different eyes. But another reason is that he was a complex person.

Olof Palme's words were unambiguous and compelling. His commitment was profound and genuine. It was above all the momentous issues facing mankind that fascinated and challenged his creative spirit. He moved people's hearts.

[L.C]

4

But at the same time he was a practical politician, patient and well aware that democracy must hasten slowly. Politics to Olof Palme was not just a matter of will. It was also a day to day job that had to be done.

Olof Palme was a prominent champion of peace, but he was also a man who stood in the thick of debate and political struggle, and he was under heavier attack than most. Those of us who stood by his side sometimes wished that his adversaries would get to know him better and thus have the privilege of learning what the man was really like.

For this man, who never shied away from a fight and, like Master Olof in Strindberg's play, refused to compromise with his conscience was also a man of personal modesty, a good friend and fond of his family.

As a speaker Olof Palme could spellbind his audience with his intensity and gift of expression. When among friends he often just sat listening.

He was careful in his choice of words, but at the same time well aware of the possibilities of language, possibilities which he mastered better than most. When roused he was capable of rebukes that overstepped the conventional limits of diplomacy in a conscious attempt to provoke people into awareness and action.

But we also remember the gentle tone he used when speaking to children, who always liked to listen to him.

Once, at the height of an election campaign, Olof Palme visited the Kryddgården School in Malmö, a school with children from 35 countries; he spoke to the pupils and

5

danced with them. A few days ago Elisabeth Zemljic, one
of the girls who was present, told us about this
meeting: "It must have meant a lot to him. You could see
how his face positively beamed. It was wonderful to see
that a person like that, so famous all over the world,
can still mean so much to children. Somehow I think that
it was we children who really understood him best".

It is perfectly natural that a prime minister should be
well-known in the capitals of the world. But Olof Palme
was also known in many poor, remote villages. This was
not due to his office, however. It was because of his
views and acts, his courage in never flinching from plain
language, the conviction that he was on the side of right
and freedom.

And in a way he found no difference between New York and
Värnamo, or New Delhi and Storuman, or Maputo and
Smedjebacken. There were differences of climate, language
and colour, of course. But there was no difference when
it came to essentials: everybody has their dreams and
aspirations. And as long as Olof Palme was able to help,
no journey was too long and no place too insignificant.

Thus Olof Palme made the world the concern and the
responsibility of us all. But at the same time surely no
other Swede can have seen more of his own country and met
a greater number of his countrymen than Olof Palme. When
children from every municipality in the land paid their
tribute to Olof Palme's memory by joining in song in
today's service, they were sending greetings from the
entire country which he loved so well and from the future
he believed in.

But Olof Palme was not only a generous and versatile
personality. He possessed great integrity, deep inside
the public and private person were fused into one.

[LC]

6

Everyone who was close to him, his family, his friends and colleagues, as well as some of his political adversaries, have experienced and often talked of Olof Palme's gentleness and sympathy, the interest he showed in so many of the lives he came in contact with. This side of Olof Palme was often absent from the official picture of him. But it is precisely here that we find the strongest driving force in his struggle for a better and more just society, a society where everyone is of equal value. And one can see Palme's international involvement and his struggle for peace and solidarity across the borders was based on this insight into the lives of those living in conditions of hardship.

Thus these many qualities and aspirations were combined in making up the personality and life achievement that we recognize as Olof Palme's.

Our grief and sense of loss at the assassination of Olof Palme have brought us closer together. This can be seen everywhere. It can be seen that the streets are quieter, people now show more consideration and understanding.

Sweden will never be quite the same again.

* * *

Olof Palme's life's work is also a legacy to be used by us to the best of our understanding and ability.

Olof Palme was a democrat.

7

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He respected other people's opinions, but above all he respected people themselves. This was why he could sit for hours and discuss things with young people at a meeting, or with people at their place of work or with people he met in the streets. He believed in progress, and he believed in the possibility of convincing people by argument. His belief in reason was a part of his optimistic view of humanity and his deeply rooted humanism.

Olof Palme was a champion of solidarity.

He often expressed his views on solidarity with the words: "It's not a question of them and us. It's just us."

Injustices and class differences roused his indignation. And his impatience at the unavoidable slowness and ineffectiveness of the political process at times - all too often - was as marked as his passion for justice. He realized that in a just society people must work together.

Olof Palme's manifest solidarity with immigrants and refugees extended beyond merely opening Sweden as a place of refuge. He was keen that we should show generosity and make the same opportunities available to those who came here as to those born in the country. He was an implacable opponent of all forms of racism and hostility to foreigners.

It is gratifying, at the same time as it fills us with a sense of obligation, to note that so many immigrants from various countries show such heartfelt sorrow at the death of a Swedish leader and prime minister.

Olof Palme was a champion of peace.

[L]

8

Peace was in fact his most important task, since he regarded war as the greatest threat to mankind. And he used to tell the younger generation: "You are really the first generation which cannot afford to fail at any price. For a nuclear war will destroy all vestige of human life."

Olof Palme was always talking about how we in Sweden come out into the world and how the world comes in to us. As soon as he got the chance he himself travelled immediately after the Second World War to America and later to Asia.

There was obviously a moral driving force behind Olof Palme's internationalism, his efforts for peace and the freedom and independence of all nations. But there was also a national interest underlying this moral standpoint. The world does not only belong to the great and powerful. We, the smaller nations, also have a right to live, develop and preserve our identity. For this right to be a reality, certain principles must be respected. The most important of these principles are laid down in the UN Charter. This was how Olof Palme expressed it himself when speaking to the United Nations:

"When the integrity and independence of one small country are violated, this sends a vibration of anger and anxiety through the hearts and minds of citizens in other small countries. For them the rule of law and observance of our common commitments under the Charter are seen as imperatives for a future in peace and security."

To Olof Palme the arms race was a dire threat to the survival of the human race. The nuclear powers have usurped the right to decide matters of life and death not

9

[LC]

only in their own countries, but also all other countries. In a world that lives under the constant threat of destruction, where there are great conflicts and demands for more and increasingly advanced weapons are growing, Palme spoke with the voice of sense and reason.

The death of Olof Palme means that we Swedes have lost our principal spokesman on behalf of democracy, solidarity and peace. But there is general support in our country for these values. And we have not lost the things he gave us, his inspiration and experience.

As a friend and colleague of Olof Palme I feel emboldened to express his appeal to those of us who are to continue his work.

- Develop Swedish democracy on the basis of explicit respect for the equal value and individuality of all people!

- Make sure that Sweden and the world, as far as this lies in our power, is characterized by justice, fellowship and solidarity.

- May this nation never indulge in introspection. Be open to the world at large and try to contribute to peace and cooperation between peoples and nations.

* * *

The memory of Olof Palme will be with us for a long time to come, in the yearning of our finest moods - his light, the clarity of his thought, his articulate reason and his warm sympathy.

Thank you, Olof. You will always remain in our hearts.

[L.C]

Unofficial translation

Address by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Sten Andersson, at the funeral ceremony for Olof Palme at the Stockholm City Hall, 15 March 1986

At this moment, lots of memories come back to me.

I remember a different meeting here in Stockholm 's City Hall slightly more than 20 years ago, with a thousand enthusiastic youngsters who were listening to one of Olof Palme's most notable speeches.

"Politics, my friends, is the will to achieve something. The will to change, because change promises improvements, gives sustenance to the imagination and drive, stimulus to dreams and visions."

His speech was received with glowing enthusiasm. Today, we weep and are enraged.

A heinous deed has taken Olof Palme from us, bereft his family of a life companion and father, deprived us of a friend and leader, wrested from us a social reformer and a world citizen.

Olof Palme has been assassinated - but he will never die.

[L]

2

Someone has said: "As a crystal refracts rays of light creating a new clarity, so sorrow changes our line of thought opening up to us a new awareness".

Olof - You were greater, meant more for people's dreams and hopes than even we, your friends, understood.

Only a minute or so after the news that brutal violence had taken you from us, a young girl came to the place on Sveavägen. She stooped to light a candle and left there a message in just a few words: "Who could kill our dove of peace?"

The girl was intimating what was later to be expressed by the poet:

"A state of emergency has been proclaimed for sorrow throughout this land of Sweden by the people themselves".

You belonged to a movement that wants democracy to be much more than a way of governing, that sees democracy as a way of living - listening to each other, respecting each other's ideas, and lending each other a helping hand.

On many occasions, I wished that those who at times thought you ruthless and insensitive, had really had a chance to get to know you, to see you in the midst of your family and friends. Or, when you considerably and as a matter of course helped people out, not only friends but also opponents when they were sorrowing or in difficulties. You always demanded more of yourself than of others.

[L]

3

We, who were in daily contact with you, were amazed at your
tirelessness in the everyday work too.

Where there was deadlock, you persistently sought an
opening, in the apparently impossible you sought a
possibility. You were convinced that every problem has a
solution and that only a lack of imagination or patience
could prevent us from finding it.

And scarcely could there be greater harmony than when, after
many hard nights' work, with your shirt collar unbuttoned,
your tie at an angle, your hair standing on end and with
your face lit up with a smile, you let us know that once
again you had found the solution.

Olof - you gave our movement strength and pride. And you
infused life into our ideas.

But. You gave us something else too, something far greater,
something that grief has made us see with perfect clarity:
you gave sustenance to our dreams, substance to our visions,
a glow to our daily toil.

In a world where military armaments can already destroy
humanity many times over, you made us dare to dream of a
world at peace. You refused to see the boundary between east
and west changed into a front line in the cold war. You
showed that close at hand there is a common security, one
that does not rest on nuclear warheads.

[L]

4

In a world of widened gaps between rich and poor, you pointed out another way of living together, a different kind of economic development than that which is based on the exploitation by the rich states of the poor, you pointed to solidarity across all frontiers.

In a world where millions of people are being persecuted for their ideas, their beliefs or the colour of their skin, you showed that society can be organized in a human way. You sustained millions of people in their dreams of liberty.

In a world of prejudice, suspicion and growing alienation, you showed that we need one another. And in a world in which violence is spreading, where self-appointed elites are trying to wring power for themselves by fear, you dared to uphold human dignity, non-violence, the open discussion and the free debate as the only path to a way of living together in dignity.

It is admittedly possible to use violence in an open society to bring a politician's life to an end.

But it is not possible to destroy ideas and an example.

Olof, your ideas will go on living in the dreams of a whole generation. Their luminence overcomes death.

[C]

5

You showed through your actions that the conviction of one
individual and the resoluteness of one small nation can make
an important contribution to peace and freedom in a divided
and unjust world.

For this your life work you are today receiving sincere
homage and unlimited gratitude from a whole world.

It is our urgent duty to continue in your spirit to speak
for those who have been silenced, to give hope to those who
are not free, and strength to the weak.

****

Olof. We mourn for you, inconsolably and profoundly.

We feel at this hour a sense of weakness, - but are also
filled with resolution. We shall not let you down. We will
not lose courage, not give in to violence, not lose our
visions, take no step backward.

Instead - with sorrow and despondency in our hearts - we
shall rally our strength, overcome our weakness and continue
the work for peace, freedom and justice.

We thank you Olof.

May you rest in peace.

[L]

15 March 1986

Address by H.M. The King at the Funeral of Olof Palme

The death of Olof Palme, the Prime Minister of this
country, has profoundly shaken the people of Sweden.
It was with consternation that we received the news
of the infamous deed against Olof Palme. What we now
feel is grief and a grievous loss. In the past few
days and at this hour our sympathies are, naturally
enough, chiefly extended to Olof Palme's family and
relatives. Our sense of fellowship with them in their
sorrow is profound.

Olof Palme's death does not only mean that Sweden has
lost a Prime Minister and a major politician and
statesman. His death also means the loss of a man who
forcefully upheld the democratic principles and
ideals on which our free Swedish society is built.

In the course of the years I have got to know Olof
Palme on terms of friendship. His death therefore
means a personal loss to me.

[LC]

2

The past weeks have shown that the ideas which Olof Palme especially fought for on the international arena have obtained a strong response in the national soul of the Swedish people. By his death a Swedish voice speaking out in the world has been silenced, a voice everyone listened to, one that spoke out with enthusiasm and involvement *against* violence and oppression, *for* peace, freedom and justice and for the rights of the small nations. This voice will be sadly missed by a whole world.

Olof Palme's endeavours have attracted attention and met response - that we can see today. The many who have gathered here round his bier in the Stockholm City Hall truly bear witness to this.

It is my hope and it is my belief that the fight for peace and freedom which Olof Palme so devotedly carried on will continue and will, by this means, also be able to lead to a better world.

[L.C.]

Remarks of the Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuéllar,
at the funeral of Prime Minister Olof Palme

Your Majesty, Mr Prime Minister, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.

The twenty-eighth of February was a sad day for the international community. While the Swedish people are of course the most intimately affected by the death of Olof Palme. His tragic assassination evokes shock and intense sorrow far from these shores.

Olof Palme personified the highest ideal of the United Nations Charter. It calls for an end to war: He was the quintessential man of peace. It reaffirms faith in human rights: he was an unflinching champion of universal human worth and dignity. It urges social progress: he stood squarely on the side of the poor and the oppressed.

There are few statesmen who have had such influence on the course of international affairs and social change. There are few who have understood so clearly the essential issues of our times. But Olof Palme's astounding intelligence and brilliance in debate were matched by compassion and human insight. He was no mere intellectual conviction. Seemingly effortlessly, he could comprehend the needs, the difficulties and the anxieties of others. He could reach out to them with a sympathy that came naturally. In life, as in death, he struck the deepest chords of a common humanity which he loved and served so truthfully.

On the very day he died, he put his signature to an appeal by six world leaders for a halt to nuclear testing. It was the last expression of his enduring commitment to disarmament and his passionate opposition to nuclear arms. His conviction was

./..

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fired by the same sense of human solidarity that motivated
his entire political life. He said in Geneva two years ago,
addressing the nuclear threat:

"Surely, there are some Western values which must be
defended, as one side says. And surely there are also
some Eastern values to be defended, as the other side
says. But there are also some human values that must be
defended by all of us. And foremost of these human values
is humanity itself."

In his own life, Olof Palme fully met his challenge: he was
the surest and truest defender of those universal human values.

Your Majesty, Excellencies.

Sweden, is today synonymous the world over with the
ideals of peaceful stability and of humane compassion. I know
you will agree that this is in no small measure due to Olof Palme.
His vision knew no national boundaries. In his Commission on
Disarmament and Security Issues, he strove to forge the elements
of a new common security for all. He laid great weight on the
United Nations role in this crucial endeavour. And he devoted
himself with the same zeal to the twin goal of development,
characteristically appealing equally to the heart and to the
mind in his tireless advocacy.

Many moments come to my mind at this time: the entire General
Assembly of the United Nations springing to its feet in giving
him one of its very rare standing ovations. The scenes of quick
give-and-take with journalists which he so evidently enjoyed.
The occasions for quiet and extraordinarily perceptive counsel
which he gave me. I cannot forget his dedication in persevering
- as Special Representative of the Secretary-General - with his
patient efforts on the war between Iran and Iraq even after his
re-election as Prime Minister.

./..

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Like so many of you here today, I have lost both a good friend and a wise adviser. We share in the tragedy as we remember the man. We think of his sparkling wit and humour, his warmth and personal charm, his enthusiasm for life and his unshakeable integrity. I am reminded of some lines written about another great humanitarian leader, Abraham Lincoln, who met a similar tragic fate:

"A wind blows in the night
and the pride of the rose is gone ...
and out of the night it came.
A wind, and the rose fell ...
Hark: from the long eclipse
the wise words come -
a wind blows, and the lips
of prophecy are dumb."

But let us take comfort in the rich legacy given to us by Olof Palme. His contribution to peace, to international security, to social progress, fairness and justice will live on. All of us - the Swedish people, the United Nations, his countless admirers - will continue to be inspired by his example.

I appeal to world leaders, both those present and those joining us in spirit, to heed his call, take up his banner and pursue his quest for a world in which future generations may live in confidence and dignity. Thank you.

[L.C.]

15 March 1986

Address by the Prime Minister of India, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, at the Funeral Ceremony for Olof Palme at the Stockholm City Hall on March 15, 1986

Your Majesty, Prime Minister Carlsson, Presidents and Prime Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

It is given to few to be both men of vision and men of action. Olof Palme's lifework was a mission dedicated to translating high ideals into noble practice.

He grew into adulthood in a world emerging from the debris of imperialism and the devastation of war. Both events profoundly influenced his thinking: development and disarmament became the central concerns of his political activity. He saw in the construction of a new world order the opportunity for a re-surgence of the spirit of internationalism.

In the political sphere, this meant the strengthening of the United Nations system. International relations had to be in-fused with respect for the sovereign equality of nations, big or small. This nascent democracy of nations had to find expression in forums where issues of common concern were discussed frankly and without fear. Nations had to be persuaded by practice and precept, to resolve conflicts through consensus and concord. Olof Palme rejected the ad-versary theory of international relations in which countries with different political and economic systems get themselves locked in a struggle for supremacy. The world, he saw, has place to accommodate a diversity of systems. Change may come through internal evolution but not through external imposition. He sought to substitute rivalry and confrontation with peaceful coexistence and international cooperation. In this, embodying as it were the spirit of the charter, Olof Palme undertook difficult and delicate missions on behalf of the United Nations, in its endeavours to reduce tensions and restore the peace.

In the economic sphere, Olof Palme saw the end of empire as the opportunity to redress the unjust, unequal economic order which stunts growth in the developing countries and endangers prosperity in the developed. He was one of the most articulate and impassioned votaries of development through international cooperation. He saw the interest of the north and the south as complementary - progress in the south reinforcing continued growth and prosperity in the north, even as sustained recovery in the north could help sustain the development process in the south. The dialogue must be resumed. Its resumption is in the interest of all. What is required is the spirit of humanism, concern and care which so characterised Olof Palme's world view.

[L]

I got to know Olof Palme best through my association with him in the Five Continent Peace Initiative. He brought to bear on our discussions the perspective of a European leader, representing a neutrality which is close on two centuries old and sandwiched between the nuclear arsenals of the Western Alliance and the Warsaw Pact. He had an acute perception of those debilitating emotions which are at the root of the nuclear arms race: hatred and fear. To overcome these, or at any rate to counter them, requires the elaboration of an alternative strategy of security which comprehends the concerns of the nuclear weapons states but leads them away from dangerous confrontation towards disarmament.

Olof Palme joined my mother and four other leaders in issuing an appeal in May 1984 to halt all testing, production and development of nuclear weapons and their delivery system. They identified verification as the key element in reassuring nuclear weapons powers that a freeze would not be used as the cover for clandestine nuclear arms activity. When, therefore, the six nations met together in New Delhi early last year, the offered themselves, as disinterested parties with the requisite technical abilities and geographic coverage, to monitor all aspects of a comprehensive test ban treaty. The offer to undertake verification, so as to remove all doubts about compliance and possible violations, has been reiterated in the message recently addressed to President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev by all six of us. There is a poignant symbolism to this message, perhaps the last political testament of Olof Palme's lifelong dedication to disarmament.

When Olof Palme visited India a few weeks ago he argued eloquently in his Indira Gandhi memorial address:

> "It has thus become possible for us humans not only to annihilate an enemy, but also all others living on this planet. We can kill animals and plants, we can destroy towns and villages, we can devastate all that has been built up over generations, all around the whole of our earth. And above all: we can destroy the future of our entire civilization, devastate the existence for our children and grandchildren, eradicate all that would have come after us. That, simply, is the role of nuclear weapons if they are used."

All nations - not just those who have armed themselves with these horrendous weapons, but all of us - have the duty to urge that weapons of mass destruction be outlawed. A comprehensive, verifiable nuclear test ban will indict the spread of nuclear arms into new dimensions and set in train a process of nuclear arms control which will, hopefully, lead to nuclear disarmament.

Olof Palme had a special place in the hearts of us Indians. He had known us well. We shall miss his ever-cheerful smile, his warmth, his boundless enthusiasm and his generous humanity. His was a sharp intellect and a generous spirit, a love of learning and an earthbound wisdom. His life was a courageous campaign against intolerance and violence.

We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family and his bereaved nation. We salute his memory. We pledge ourselves anew to the international causes he held dear: peace on earth and goodwill among men.

Thank you.

[C]

SPEECH HELD BY KALEVI SORSA IN HONOUR OF OLOF PALME

Stockholm City Hall, March 15th 1986

In the depths of our minds the finality of Olof Palme's departure cannot be accepted. Everything conspires at times to recall from memory the living personality - a lively gest, the glimp of blue eyes, words like a handclasp.

Most of my memories come from our common Nordic surroundings which he knew so well and loved so much. He had a clear understanding of the fact that the Nordic values, our way of life, democracy and our common achievements had a message for the world - the message of peace, equality and freedom. Of all of us, he was the one whom the world listened to as a bearer of this message.

It was with the same glowing intensity that he worked for the realization of these goals in the Nordic community; in the Nordic Council, in the bilateral nordic contacts - and of course in his own country. The Nordic moral right to demand with sufficient force, that peace and solidarity should be the guiding principles in the international community, that right could only be held according to Olof Palme, if we ourselves could show internal solidarity and the ability to cooperate.

Just as the Nordic nations is a term used with respect in international relations, so too is the term Nordic social democracy respected within the world wide labour movement. Olof Palme's innumerable and well known standpoints and initiatives, his successful ideological effort both at home and abroad, his blinding skill in political

[L.C]

2

debate, his infectious commitment - all this made him a central figure in the Socialist International. Under his leadership Swedish social democracy took another step forwards in building up 'the Swedish Peoples Home' - from social and cultural equality progress was made towards realizing economic equality.

International social democracy has carefully followed and will continue to follow after this development, for decades the goals, the struggles and the experience of Swedish social democracy have provided a source of inspiration and encouragement.

The social democratic family's close reciprocity, especially in the Nordic countries, made Olof Palme's political efforts part of our own work.

"Olof Palme has departed." The words send a cold shiver through every Nordic socialdemocrat's breast.

I have had the privilege of knowing Olof Palme as a partner and friend. Till only recently he was described by the press as boyish. Since this fact could not be denied I was forced to think about what this boyishness consisted of - definitely not just physical ease and vivacity. The ability to look fresh - with bright eyes, the ability to give his all with his whole heart and soul, the ability to throw his whole being into working for ideas - many are they who lose these characteristics in the wear and tear of life, but not Olof.

It was this that made my friend a creative person in a way which is granted to few.

Politics is the will to achieve, he said. We will go forward.

Anna Lindh, Chairman of the Social democratic youth of Sweden
Adress at Olof Palme's funeral on March 15th, 1986

We who are young need teachers and people who set an example.

We needed Olof Palme.

Olof Palme liked sharing with other people. In particular, he liked very much sharing things with us youngsters. We who had the opportunity of listening became acquainted with a wealth of experience and knowledge. He presented us with a picture of how a life can be devoted to bettering conditions for other people. Solidarity can become a way of life.

We thank you, Olof Palme, for giving us so much. We thank you for everything you taught us.

We who are young want to believe in the future.

At a time when dread of the threat of nuclear war is growing and when many young people view the future with fear, Olof Palme took our anxiety seriously and changed it into belief in the future and strength to act. He led us in the struggle for détente, disarmament and peace.

Olof Palme's last letter was addressed to the leaders of the superpowers with a request for a ban on all nuclear weapon tests. In the last interview that he gave he said that he hoped that 1986 would be the year of great opportunities.

We thank you, Olof Palme, for your struggle for the future helping us to believe in it.

We who are young need a whole world in which to live.

Olof Palme helped us to see, understand and accept a responsibility also for deplorable conditions outside the confines of our country. As the true humanist he reacted against and fought injustice, oppression and racism. We are many who made our way to the Social Democrats because we found there international solidarity and the spirit of togetherness across the frontiers.

We thank you, Olof Palme, for receiving your help to understand the world and for your giving us so much of your enthusiasm for justice.

We who are young question things.

Olof Palme did not always follow the conventional line, so far and no further. He opened doors instead of merely knocking timorously. He climbed over walls when they barred the road to freedom. He spoke out as his heart dictated instead of saying what others regarded as being suitable.

We thank you, Olof Palme, for showing that politics can also be a piercing cry for justice, a revolt against all that suppresses and paralyses.

We who are young need visions.

Olof Palme showed that politics must be guided by ideas, morals and sensitivity, that politics are more than technique and administration. Olof Palme's

involvement meant that politics became exciting, that human beings under-
lying statistics did not disappear, that the vision behind the small reform
was not forgotten.

We thank you, Olof Palme, for encouraging us to create visions for the
society of the future.

During the last two weeks we have seen how much Olof Palme meant and how
greatly he is missed. Very great are the numbers of young people, teenagers,
parents with small children who have queued for hours to write their names
in the books of condolences, to show their sorrow in tears at the site of
the murder, to march in the solemn torchlight processions.

It is their thanks that I now wish to express.

We thank you, Olof Palme,
the Social Democratic youth thank you,
the youth of Sweden and many other countries thank you.

Our thanks to you shall not rest with what is past but will be directed
towards the future.

A human being can be murdered but not ideas. Your ideas will go on living
through us. We promise that to the best of our ability we shall continue
your struggle,
the struggle for peace
and for international solidarity
the struggle for a free and open Sweden without racism
and hatred of foreigners.

We shall thank you by passing on your message as Helga Henschen's poem
urges us to do:

Speak
you who still has lips

words can become suns
words can become rivers
words can open gates and build bridges
words can overthrow tyrants
if sufficiently many of us arm ourselves with words

speak speak
that is our duty
towards those who spoke
while they still had lips.

[L.C.]

Speech by Willy Brandt at the funeral of Olof Palme
Stockholm, 15.3.1986

Olof, listening to us if he could, might ask: Aren't you in danger of paying too little attention to what lies ahead of you?

Probably he also would think: It's still nice that comradeship is praised and that friends and not only friends pay attention to what has been essence of my public life.

Today, my farewell-words will not include the term 'statesman'. It should be more than justified, but also too narrow. It would not necessarily include visionary strength and extreme intellectual integrity.

These two weeks did prove how close Olof was to young people, much beyond the Swedish borders - because they did and do sense how great his dedication was to make their survival possible. And what made him such an independent and unconventional leader.

These last two weeks did one more prove how much too simple and even poor is the saying that nobody is irreplaceable. Yes, yes but we also know that some gaps cannot really be closed.

There is an impressing list of leaders with an unusual moral appeal, outstanding fighters for peace and human rights, but who still - or for that very reason - fell victim to deadly violence;

From Abraham Lincoln and Jean Jaurès and Augusto Sandino until Benigno Aquino and Indira Gandhi and - now - Olof Palme. Everyone of them and their category left a most important legacy for the whole of mankind and something to be proud of for their relatives and their colleagues and their fellow-citizens.

In the world-wide family of democratic socialists we have lost a great friend, an untiring and most inspiring homme politique, an outstanding companion in the struggle

- to make peace safer

- to broaden the areas where people's social as well as individual rights could foster

- and to bring about some justice, also for those millions of fellow human beings who do not have enough to eat in a world which, better organized, could feed them all.

Olof called that afternoon which was his second last. He did speak about his time-table, some of his plans, part of what was in the center of his mind:

- if we would meet in Lisbon last - then it was next - week-end, since he had been so close to the democratic openings in Southern Europe

- that he was looking forward to take part in our International's next Congress, expected to take place in Lima/Peru in June

- after just having delivered a major speech on South Africa, he was sorry not being able to participate in our meeting in Gaborone next month; he had asked Birgitta Dahl, a member of his cabinet, to represent him

- mainly, of course, his ideas - even stronger after last year's visit to Hiroshima - were circling around how to prevent that the fight for world-peace might be lost, and how the initiatives in which he was involved, could be carried ahead

[L.C.]

- how, for example, he could use contacts with American friends and his forthcoming trip to the Soviet Union to help those hoping that Geneva might find a reasonable follow-up.

Now, we know leaders joining in the five-continents-initiative have decided to go on.

So have members of the Palme Commission. So do we in my former Commission where Olof Plame was such an important and esteemed colleague.

All this is part of his last will.

In the Socialist International we will try to go on where our Vice-President Olof Palme was forced to leave.

We will strengthen our activities against Apartheid and strengthen our fight for justice and solidarity and continue our search for solutions in the East-West-conflict and the North-South crisis. We will add something to the fight for democracy and against the deadly debt-crisis in Latin America. We will speak more loudly about the link between world armament and world hunger.

He was an activist and someone who at the same time had no difficulties in taking the long view. And not to forget about the cultural dimensions. He was able to listen, not just to talk. And he found it easy to join us laughing.

Olof also was a good host. Many among us and the International as such did experience it at various occasions, not least last year when we met at Bommersvik.

This is the hour to say good-bye to a beloved younger brother: Thank you, Olof thank you for your achievements, for your challenging spirit and for the great example you left for those to follow-up.

May I promise you: There are those of us and of younger friends who know it is not enough to guard dear memories, it's important to keep the flame burning.

Olof will go on living in our hearts and in our work. He will be remembered by European workers and African farmers, by freedom-loving people in Asia, in the Americas, all over the world.

The example given by Olof Palme will further inspire the efforts of those who stryggle for a better future.

[L.C.]

SPEECH HELD BY STIG MALM IN HONOUR OF OLOF PALME
STOCKHOLM CITY HALL SATURDAY 15th MARCH 1986

A friend has departed. We experience a feeling of great emptiness. We look to each other for support, to our families and friends, within our organizations, to the nation. We feel small, perhaps feeble.

But from this sorrow, this sense of loss and the anger we feel, there will grow an insight. This insight comes when we feel that our problems and difficulties weigh heavy and sometimes appear insurmountable. When we realize how small and feeble we are, the insight that we need to cooperate, to stand united, becomes strong. It was the insight into the value of cooperation and unity which provided the basis for a policy of justice and solidarity. It was this policy which made Olof Palme's contribution so very great.

We, the workers of Sweden, wish at this moment when our sorrow is so deep, at this moment when we first begin to grasp what our loss and the sense of emptiness entails, we wish to thank you. We have so many reasons, such cause to express our gratitude.

Many of us bear with us personal memories of Olof Palme. Memories from our workplaces, congresses, public gatherings at Norra Bantorget and at Götaplatsen, in Kolmården and Furuvik. Those memories live in all the People's Houses and all our squares in towns and cities. We have lived together with you, your enthusiasm has inspired us and we have been uplifted by a sense of strong kinship with you.

Together we stand - as a trade union and political movement - together we have built this home for the Swedish people. The social reforms are many, they

[L.C.]

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touch on every area of our lives. It is only natural
that we should remember the democratization of working
life. The safety officers of the mineworkers union
who have been enabled to protect their comrades. The
metal workers who can retire early from a hard working
life thanks to the part-time pension scheme. The five
weeks holiday which enables the hospital auxiliary
to take a well needed rest. But also co-determination,
security of employment and the measures passed to
assist the elderly and handicapped.

Above all, it is our daily work that the memory of
Olof Palme will remain with us. Your contribution, Olof,
ensures you a place in our hearts for ever. We know
only too well the value of reforms which increase our
security, increase justice and freedom for all.
Olof Palme stood on the side of the weak and the defence-
less.

But his concern was not limited to Sweden. Concern for
the defenceless was the hallmark of Olof Palme's
international work. This helps to explain why Olof
Palme so often emphasized the role of trade unions in
promoting democracy - in Poland, in South Africa, in
Chile, in almost every country where democracy has
been repressed. For those of us working here at home,
this effort broadened our perspectives and contributed
to our education. International solidarity became
something tangible, something living.

Olof Palme made Sweden known in the world, gave us a
place on the map. A driving force in his international
work was the society which we have built in Sweden.
We have much to learn, but perhaps something we can
share with others. Olof Palme was an excellent ambassador
for the home we call Sweden. He listened and shared

[Lc]

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his experiences with others. An ambassador for solida-
rity and justice whom we have every reason to be
proud of.

Olof Palme was well known in the international trade
union movement. Union ideas of solidarity matched
Olof Palme's views on the relation between people and
between states. In both cases it is a question of
respect for people's and for small nations' right to
determine the course of their own development.

Olof Palme saw clearly the risks and the problems,
but despite this he gave us a belief in the future
by giving us a picture of a world where there is the
hope of a better future and the possibility for all
to lead a happy life. That is important in a world
where violence and oppression celebrate their victories
daily. We need such positive pictures so badly, someone
who can restore our hopes. Olof, we needed you so
very much longer still.

Olof Palme was a true democrat. He was moreover a
democratic leader. He debated, argued his case, per-
suaded with facts. It was not the role of prime minister
or party leader which gave his decisions authority.
It was the fact that they had been discussed and
tried by fact.

Olof Palme was an heir to all that is best in the
Swedish model and in Swedish democracy. Olof Palme's
strong commitment to democracy and his absolute free-
dom from pomposity and the symbols of power deepened
the sense of democracy in our hearts and minds.

The images and memories we have of Olof Palme are
many. Common to all of them is his involvement, his
will to achieve, to react against injustice, his passion

[LC]

4

for democracy. The images, the memories may be of
occasions great and small, but they are always to
be associated with what was important for people.

There are the personal memories which we hold dear
in our hearts. We recall them when we feel the need
for inspiration and inner strength.

Olof, in life we are so poor at showing our appreciation.
We take so much for granted. You stood by us, you were
always near to hand when we wanted to talk to someone.
We knew you as a true friend.

That friendship will last forever. With all the strength
that we can muster we intend to carry on your work.
Friendship demands that we continue the struggle for
a more just Sweden and the security of our world which
was your dream.

We thank you Olof.

Remarks by Henry A. Kissinger
Memorial Service for Olof Palme

March 7, 1986

2

commensurate with the moral and intellectual dimension
of its Prime Minister far beyond the traditional calculations
of power.

Shortly after that first meeting Palme and I left office
within months of each other. Strangely in view of what had
gone before we maintained an increasingly frequent and close
contact. Neither of us ever visited the other's country
without meeting for extended conversations. I do not presume
to speak for Palme but my own thinking, I felt, was not
complete without the benefit of Palme's insight, perspective
and devotion.

In the end, transcending all controversies, Palme's
passion was for the best in Western values. Wherever peace was
threatened or justice was denied or freedom was in jeopardy--
in the Middle East, in Central America, in South Africa, on
the issue of nuclear weapons--Palme was to be found at the
cutting edge of the debate. Though he often carried placards

3

he was never content with slogans. He strove tenaciously
to find solutions to world problems--many far distant from
his own country--always intelligently, never yielding to
the counsels of tactical prudence. For his passion was
concentrated on making the free peoples worthy of the values
they avowed. It is the measure of his integrity that not
even his severest critics challenged the aspiration of this
Swedish leader to act as a universal conscience. Pragmatists
might consider him a romantic for believing unreservedly in
man's perfectibility. But then every great achievement was
a dream before it became a reality; cathedrals are not brought
into being by skeptics.

Olof Palme--once one knew him--was a gentle, caring and
thoughtful friend. When I was in the hospital after surgery
he interrupted his mediation of the Iran-Iraq war to call from
some airport or other for a long and sensitive conversation.
On the occasion of my attendance at a private conference in

4

Sweden some local groups used my chairmanship of the Bipartisan Commission on Central America to organize a large demonstration in front of the hotel. Palme--once again Prime Minister--took me ostentatiously to lunch at a public restaurant at the same time--characteristically without security--though his personal sympathies were hardly on the side of the policies being attacked, to put it mildly.

As the years went by I came to think of Olof Palme more and more as a sentinel in the ramparts of freedom warning, cajoling, holding aloft a standard which contributed crucially to dialectic by which liberty and human dignity achieve their meaning. One could debate Olof Palme's answers; it was not possible to ignore his questions.

Henry Kissinger

## 'Olof Palme and I Were Friends'

In the end, transcending all controversies, Palme's passion was for the best in Western values. Wherever peace was threatened or justice was denied or freedom was in jeopardy—in the Middle East, in Central America, in South Africa, on the issue of nuclear weapons—Palme was to be found at the cutting edge of the debate. Though he often carried placards he was never content with slogans. He strove tenaciously to find solutions to world problems—many far distant from his own country—always intelligently, never yielding to the counsels of tactical prudence. For his passion was concentrated on making the free peoples worthy of the values they avowed. It is the measure of his integrity that not even his severest critics challenged the aspiration of this Swedish leader to act as a universal conscience. Pragmatists might consider him a romantic for believing unreservedly in man's perfectibility. But then every great achievement was a dream before it became a reality;

Washington Post - Sun. Mar. 9th, 1986

57

[Y]

2

EYD

3

4

The anguish and passions of the Vietnam period prevented
meeting with Olof Palme for most of the years we both held
public office. Finally in 1976 Palme invited me to visit
Sweden. We had a long private dinner; a more official meeting
the next morning. It was clear immediately that Palme was an
extraordinary personality. So many leaders are interesting
primarily because of the power they wield. Palme was significant
apart from his official *FUNCTION*. His knowledge, his subtlety
and his commitment answered the perennial question whether an
individual can make a difference. Olof Palme represented
small, neutral country geographically at the periphery of events.

[Y]

2

He gave Sweden influence commensurate with the moral and intellectual dimension of its Prime Minister transcending the traditional CALCULATION of power.

Shortly after that first meeting Palme and I left office within months of each other. Strangely in view of what had gone before we maintained an increasingly frequent and close contact. Neither of us ever visited the other's country without meeting for extended conversations. I do not presume to speak for Palme but my own thinking, I felt, was not complete without the benefit of Palme's insight, perspectives and devotion.

In the end, transcending all controversies, Palme's passion was for the best in Western values. Wherever peace threatened or justice was denied or freedom was in jeopardy in the Middle East, in Central America, in the South Africa, on the issue of nuclear weapons--Palme was to be found at the cutting edge of the debate. Though he often carried placards he was never content with slogans. He

CJD

3

strove tenaciously to find solutions to world problems--
many far distant from his own country--always intelligently,
never yielding to the LOUNSELS OF TACTICAL PRINCIPLES. FOR
HIS PASSION WAS CONCENTRATED ON
He saw it as his duty to make the free peoples worthy of the
values they avowed. It is the measure of his integrity that
not even his severest critics challenged the aspiration of this
Swedish leader to act as a universal conscience. Pragmatists
might consider him a semantic romanticist for believing unreservedly in
man's perfectibility. But then every great achievement was a
dream before it became a reality, cathedrals are not brought
into being by skeptics.

Olaf Palme--once one knew him--was a gentle, caring and
thoughtful friend. When I was in the hospital after surgery
he interrupted his mediation of the Iran-Iraq war to call from
some airport or other for a long and sensitive conversation. On
the occasion of my attendance at a private conference in Sweden some
LOCAL groups used my chairmanship of the Bipartisan Central American-

Edward M. Kennedy
Massachusetts

United States Senate

MAR 24 1990

March 7, 1986

The Honorable Henry A. Kissinger
Center for Strategic and International Studies
1800 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006

Dear Henry,

It was good to see you this morning at
the Memorial Service for Olof Palme.

The loss of such a great spiritual leader
will leave a void among us all but let us hope
that his memory will promote the achievement
of the values to which he devoted his life.

I enjoyed your remarks during the service
and thought you might be interested in a copy
of mine.

I look forward to seeing you again on a
more joyous occasion where we can have the
chance for a lengthier conversation.

Edward M. Kennedy

from the office of
Senator Edward M. Kennedy
of Massachusetts

REMARKS OF SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY
MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR OLAF PALME
NATIONAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

MARCH 7, 1986

For Sweden, this year, the winter's night will be longer.

For the world, for many years to come, the loss of his voice
leaves a void that all the speeches and clamor of statesmen and
generals cannot fill.

Yet, the flowers covering the icy spot where he fell -- the
blossoms quivering in the chill wind -- witness to the deathless
seeds of hope which he planted.

Prime Ministers come and go in nations everywhere; what makes
the mourning for Olaf Palme so intense everywhere was that he
became that rarest of modern figures: more than a Prime Minister,
he was a prophet. It is rarer still that such a man should head
a government. His compatriots in spirit -- Ghandi and Martin
Luther King -- led movements, but never nations.

Perhaps it could have happened only in Sweden, which has
lived out a vocation of peace amid the bloodiest, most dangerous
wars in human history. Olaf Palme was the culmination of that
commitment.

His words were not always welcome or easy, but the words of
prophets never are. On occasion, he discomforted Americans --
and displeased Soviets. This was not because he sided with one
nation or another -- but because he stood up for principle as he
saw it. He came to the world stage when he first joined, nearly
two decades ago, in a torchlight march against the war in
Vietnam. Afterwards, he never put down the torch of peace.

As he carried it, he cast new light on both the obligations
of the most powerful and the cause of the poorest nations on
earth. Olaf Palme proved anew that what counts most is not the
size of a man's country, but the scope of his vision and the
depth of his soul.

I met him; but I knew him primarily from a distance, through
the prism of events. Yet his presence was so vivid that it was
not seen in shadow or in snapshot. To millions who never met him
at all, he came across as a whole person, unyielding in his
ideals, strong and yet gentle -- admired and finally loved. Olaf
Palme won a high place not only in our history, but in our
hearts.

Sometimes, it seems that hate and violence cannot abide those
who stand for reason and peace. Olaf Palme died, walking among
his people, with his wife's hand in his. He was a prophet so
honored in his own country that he refused to be afraid. But in
the truest sense, he belonged to all of us. Today I regard him
as a brother -- and if I may be permitted, I would apply to him
now some words I spoke for Robert Kennedy.

Olaf Palme saw war -- and tried to stop it. Let us pray that
what he was for us -- and what he wished for others -- will
someday come to pass for all the world.