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 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090017-8

societal attainments. These leaders see an especially virtuous Sweden. They may unabashedly allude to their country as the "conscience of the world" and proceed to play the gratuitous rule of honest broker between contending nations. Having a precedent in the active U.N. peacekeeping role of Sweden, notably in the 1950's when Sweden's Dag Hammarskjold was Secretary General, the new activism is more flamboyant. Old and trusted friends such as the United States, may be excoriated for the Indochina involvement. On the other hand, a Soviet brand of Realpolitik much closer to home, such as the effective veto of NORDEK of the intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968, will elicit a spirited but relatively short-lived censure, and one certainly less damaging of bilateral relations.

Whatever the moral mortgage on its policy of neutrality, Sweden exploited to advantage a fortunate geographic position, well to the north of the continental invasion routes, and buffered by Norway from the militarily vital North Atlantic shipping lanes. The protracted period of peace notably in the 20th century, enabled social planners to affect steady progress in education and welfare, two areas where Sweden now serves as the European, if not the world, model. With the near total investment of national resources in the continues economic and social development of the country, dramatic progress was possible. As early as in the mid-19th century, Sweden (joined only by Denmark) had developed an effective compulsory nationwide primary education program which by the early 20th century was able to achieve the virtual elimination of illiteracy. And, by 1972, Sweden had made the most progress anywhere outside of North America in transforming a traditionally elite upper secondary educational system into one accessible to the masses. With upper secondary and university level enrollment increasing geometrically throughout much of Western Europe, Sweden has proved best able to cope with conditions through rapidly expanding plants and teaching staffs and a thoroughgoing reorganization of secondary and advanced education. The development of the all-pervasive welfare system in the present century and its effect, inter alia, on public health standards, now the highest in the world, is self-evident.

The absence for over 160 yeas of the human and material drain of warfare ushered in a period of startling economic growth. By the early 20th century, the industrial empires were exploiting with efficiency the country's few significant natural resources, notably iron ore, timber, and hydroelectric power. In the manufacture of products such as high-grade steel, dynamite, and ships they were assisted by Swedish scientists who were world leaders in their respective fields. The far northern city of Kiruna was developed, in significant measure with government funds, to help in the extraction of the rich iron ore deposits from the region. The steel industry was enabled to produce the world's finest product during the interwar years and to maintain itself in the front rank ever since.

Sweden's 1971 electric power capacity (16.5 million kw.) and output (65 billion kw.-hr.) rank the small nation about 10th in the world, and its highly efficient national power grid is second to none. Moreover, nearly three-fourths of electric power production is based on national hydro resources, primarily from large plants on the northern rivers. The remainder, as well as about half of Sweden's overall primary energy, is produced from imported petroleum. Imported coal accounts for about 5% of Sweden's energy needs. Notwithstanding the normal reliance on imports, most energy needs were met during World War II through careful allocation of hydroelectric power via the national grid, which was then developed close to its present highly rational state. Wartime exigencies also prompted government intervention in agriculture and planning, subsidies, and price supports now on

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090017-8