Vietnam: Moderata Ungdomsförbundet och vietnamnkriget 1665-1973

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to examine how the Swedish Young Conservatives related to Vietnam issue between 1965 and 1973 by studying the organization's own newspaper with the method qualitative text analysis as described in Esaiasson et al. (2007). In the absence of previous research which has studied the same topic we have chosen to relate the results of this study to previous studies, that have dealt with Svenska Dagbladet´s attitude to the Vietnam war, as it is the most well known conservative Swedish newspaper and can thus be considered representative of the conservative press in Sweden. In order to achieve the aim, we studied the association's view on the Vietnam conflict, on American policy and on the Swedish Government's policy as well as on Vietnam issue as discussed in Swedish public opinion.The results shows that Swedish Young Conservatives retains a positive image of the United States  for almost the entire investigation period, when the United States is seen as the good party in the conflict and as a symbol for democracy and freedom. A new and more negative image of the United States is emerging in 1972. The conflict is seen as the United States fight against communism until 1972, when a reassessment of the conflict takes place and the United States presence in Vietnam is beginning to be questioned. The result also shows that the Swedish Young Consevatives remains critical of the Government's policy of Vietnam during the entire investigation period, in line with the moderate party. Key words: Vietnam War, Swedish Young Conservatives, Swedish conservative press, Swedish foreign politics.