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d. The United States
Until the latter 1960s relations with the United States were extremely cordial. As a consequence of the post-World War II weakening of the military position of the United Kingdom, Denmark looked to the United States as the principal guarantor of its national integrity. Emerging from their own isolation, the Danes came to appreciate the world outlook of the United States and to regard the North American giant as the leader of the democratic world. American and Danish interests have subsequently coincided on a broad range of international issues. The United States has become one of the largest trading partners of Denmark, although this growing economic relationship has brought with it charges from Copenhagen that US trade and shipping policies are overly restrictive. Intellectual and cultural ties have been close and official and unofficial exchanges numerous. Historically, Danish goodwill stems from the success of nearly a half million Danish immigrants in the United States, from the US role in World War II, and from the timely application of Marshall Plan assistance to help resuscitate the postwar Danish economy.
The protracted US military involvement in Vietnam markedly dampened this goodwill. High ranking Danes in 1972 and 1973, including the two Prime Ministers and the Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs, have forcibly denounced US "genocide" in Southeast Asia. Prime Minister Jorgensen further welcomed in October 1972 the Myrdal War Crimes Tribunal to Christiansborg Palace, seat of the Folketing. This "tribunal," organized by the renowned Swedish sociologist, denounced in the sense indicated by its title US "military imperialism." Although a bizarre manifestation arranged more for dramatic impact, the focus of the "tribunal" found broad support.
Many Danes, sharing in measure their Swedish cousins' sense of national virtue, regard "militarism" and "democracy" as contradictory states of being. Indebted to US military preparedness for their freedom and security, they nonetheless believe that the pervasive military mindedness of US officials is beginning to undermine American democratic institutions and traditions. Otherwise, how could the United States support authoritarian regimes in Portugal, Spain, and Greece and give tacit support to the Portuguese "colonial wars" in Africa? The long US involvement in Vietnam was but the most visible and reprehensible reflection of the new "US fascism." The comparatively few differences in domestic outlook between most Social Democrats and non-Socialists obliges the former to look to foreign policy to find an issue and a focus for its reforming urge. Not that the United States has withdrawn from Vietnam, a serious irritant in Danish-US relations has been removed, but an audience may still be found when presumed US "intervention" in other areas is condemned, viz. Chile.
The question of race relations in the United States also continues to pique the interest of the moralistic but remarkably homogenous Danish society. Like their Swedish neighbors, they are prone to compare their own limited, but honorable and compassionate historic treatment of negroes with the continuing problems in US race relations. The black population of Denmark is so infinitesimal that it defies measurement as a proportion, but every Danish schoolchild learns with pride that Denmark, in 1792, was "the first country in the world to forbid slave trading." The Myrdal War Crimes Tribunal represented by association a confluence of hostile emotional currents.
The ongoing US rapprochement with the USSR and the People's Republic of China, on the other hand, has been widely applauded, while strident anti-US criticism across the board has all but ceased since the January 1973 Vietnam ceasefire agreement. It should be noted that the Danes have adhered to or sympathized with virtually all multilateral arrangements that have been backed by the United States, even during the period of the most vocal anti-Americanism. The recent EC accession and renewed, albeit modest, NATO commitment promise more of the same.
E. Threats to government stability (S)
1. Discontent and dissidence
Denmark is a well-knit democracy with an advanced system of social welfare. In ethnic origin and culture the Danes are extraordinarily homogenous. The country has one of the highest per capita gross national products in the world, little unemployment, and virtually no poverty. Neither the nation nor its citizens appear to have any significant grievances. This does not mean, however, that discontent or at least the conditions that promote it are totally lacking.
The Danes by and large are a reasonable and practical people, but like their even wealthier Swedish neighbors, they seem to suffer from an excess of idealism, a circumstances that on occasion leaves them resistant to logic and susceptible to special appeals. Down through the years there has existed in Denmark a strong strain of pacifist-neutralist sentiment. Though
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110016-6
