Editing Olof Palme (section)

===Foreign policy===
Soviet{{endash}}Swedish bilateral relations were tested during Palme's second period as prime minister in the 1980s, in particular, owing to reports of [[Soviet submarine S-363|incursions by Soviet submarines into Swedish territorial waters]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Feder |first1=Barnaby J. |title=Swedes' Seabed Spy Hunt: No Stone is Unturned |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/31/world/swedes-seabed-spy-hunt-no-stone-is-unturned.html |work=The New York Times |issue=46000 |volume=133|date=31 March 1984}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Palme Meets Russian As Sub Hunt Continues |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/06/world/around-the-world-palme-meets-russian-as-sub-hunt-continues.html |work=The New York Times |issue=45670 |volume=132|date=6 May 1983}}</ref>

[[File:Olof Palme marching against the Vietnam War 1968.jpg|thumb|Olof Palme marching against the Vietnam War with the [[North Vietnam]]ese ambassador [[Nguyễn Thọ Chân]] in Stockholm, 1968]]
On the international scene, Palme was a widely recognised political figure because of his:
* harsh and emotional criticism of the United States over the [[Vietnam War]];
* vocal opposition to the crushing of the [[Prague Spring]] by the Soviet Union;
* criticism of European Communist regimes, including labeling the [[Gustáv Husák|Husák]] regime as "The Cattle of Dictatorship" (Swedish: "Diktaturens kreatur") in 1975;
* campaigning against nuclear weapons proliferation;
* criticism of the [[Spain under Franco|Franco Regime]] in Spain, calling the regime "goddamn murderers" (Swedish: "satans mördare"; see [[Swedish profanity]]) after its [[Last use of capital punishment in Spain|execution]] of [[ETA (separatist group)|ETA]] and [[Revolutionary Antifascist Patriotic Front|FRAP]] militants in September 1975;
* opposition to [[apartheid]], branding it as "a particularly gruesome system", and support for [[economic sanctions]] against South Africa;
* support, both political and financial, for the [[African National Congress]] (ANC), the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO) and the [[Polisario Front]];
* visiting [[Fidel Castro]]'s Cuba in 1975, during which he denounced [[Fulgencio Batista]]'s government and praised contemporary [[26th of July Movement|Cuban]] revolutionaries;
* strong criticism of the [[Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990)|Pinochet regime]] in Chile;
* support, both political and financial, for the [[Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front|FMLN]]-FDR in El Salvador and the [[Sandinista National Liberation Front|FSLN]] in Nicaragua; and,
* role as a mediator in the [[Iran–Iraq War]].

All of this ensured that Palme had many opponents as well as many friends abroad.<ref>{{cite web|last=Holst|first=Karen|title=Palme's political legacy 'put Sweden on the map'|url=http://www.thelocal.se/32314/20110228/|work=The Local|access-date=23 March 2011}}</ref>

In June 1972 at the [[United Nations Conference on the Human Environment]] he described the environmental damage caused by the [[Vietnam War]] (including use of [[Agent Orange]] and other [[Rainbow Herbicides]] to deforst whole areas of the country) as [[ecocide]] and called for it to become an international crime.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Siddique |first1=Haroon |last2=correspondent |first2=Haroon Siddique Legal affairs |date=22 June 2021 |title=Legal experts worldwide draw up 'historic' definition of ecocide |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/22/legal-experts-worldwide-draw-up-historic-definition-of-ecocide |access-date=22 June 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |date=19 February 2021 |title=Lawyers Are Working to Put 'Ecocide' on Par with War Crimes. Could an International Law Hold Major Polluters to Account? |url=https://time.com/5940759/ecocide-law-environment-destruction-icc/ |access-date=22 June 2023 |magazine=Time |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ecocide: a crime against the planet |url=https://www.lawscot.org.uk/members/journal/issues/vol-66-issue-10/ecocide-a-crime-against-the-planet/ |access-date=22 June 2023 |website=Law Society of Scotland |language=en}}</ref>

On 23 December 1972, Palme (then Prime Minister) made a speech on Swedish national radio where he compared the ongoing [[Operation Linebacker II|U.S. bombings of Hanoi]] to historical atrocities, namely the [[bombing of Guernica]], the massacres of [[Oradour-sur-Glane massacre|Oradour-sur-Glane]], [[Babi Yar]], [[Katyn massacre|Katyn]], [[Lidice]] and [[Sharpeville massacre|Sharpeville]], and the [[Treblinka extermination camp|extermination of Jews and other groups at Treblinka]]. The US government called the comparison a "gross insult" and once again decided to freeze its diplomatic relations with Sweden (this time the freeze lasted for over a year).<ref name="vietnam" />