Word: wennerstrom
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Khrushchev's gibes at Scandinavian capitalism particularly galled the Swedes, who have remained neutral in the cold war and are doubly furious at having to spend $57 million to revise their defense planning as a result of Colonel Stig Wennerstrom's espionage for Moscow (TIME, May 8). Sweden is intensely proud of the humane, egalitarian society it calls "industrial democracy"-and with reason. From poverty so desperate that hundreds of thousands of its people fled to the U.S. in the 19th century, hardworking, ingenious Swedes have not only turned their predominantly capitalist economy into the world...
Last week, in Department Eight of Stockholm Magistrate's court, Wennerstrom was convicted on three counts of "gross espionage." He was stripped of his rank-his Swedish colonelcy, that is-ordered to pay the state $98,000 of some $200,000 that he received for his espionage work, and sentenced to life imprisonment. In Sweden this means that he will technically be eligible for parole in ten years. The full details of his career may never be known. The government allowed only 900 pages of the 3,700-page trial transcript to be published; nearly half of the court...
...Recently nabbed Red agents include Sweden's ex-Military Attache Stig Wennerstrom; Russia's Ivan Egerov and wife, attached to the U.N. secretariat; two unidentified Russians caught in Washington using the names and papers of innocent living Americans, as well as a British corporal, a French naval reservist, a U.S. yeoman and half a dozen Russian, Rumanian and Czech diplomats...
What damage could Wennerstrom's game have done to the U.S., NATO, and his own country? Though Sweden is not a NATO member, Wennerstrom had contact with Danish and Norwegian military men, probably knew a lot about the NATO defenses and weapons. He also knew Swedish defense sites and strengths, had access to key mobilization and communication plans. In Washington, he had access among other things, to detailed information on the U.S. Army's Hawk, radar-guided antiaircraft missile designed to knock down low-flying supersonic planes. The Russians are working hard to perfect a defense against...
More Proof? Swedish Minister of Defense Sven Andersson was suspicious of Wennerstrom for two years prior to his arrest, but Premier Tage Erlander was not informed until after agents had picked up Wennerstrom on the way to his office. As opposition critics pounced, Erlander went on television to explain: "It is impossible for the government to be informed of every person who is under suspicion. We need more proof in a democratic society before we can take action." It sounded like a lame excuse to Liberals and Conservatives, who demanded a parliamentary investigation. Meanwhile, always the gentleman, Wennerstrom reportedly asked...