To Jerome Wiesner
White House
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena
Oslo, 13 December 1963
Dear Jerry:
I enclose a copy of my Nobel Lecture. You may be interested in the three references
to President Kennedy, especially the one on page 15.
The Nobel Ceremonies were fine. They were marred only by the boycott by the American
Embassy. Usually the ambassador of the country of the Laureate is at the airport to
greet him, at the prize ceremony, at the banquet, and at the Nobel Lecture.
Day before yesterday Director Gunnar Jahn, the chairman of the Nobel Committee
of the Norwegian Parliament, told me that a member of the U.S. Embassy staff had come
to see him (about another matter), and that he (Jahn) had said, “You go back and tell
your Ambassador that his behavior this year has been an affront to the Norwegian Nobel
Committee.”
I think this is a serious matter, and I am writing to you in the hope that you
can do something about it. Would it be possible for you to talk with Secretary Rusk
about it, and arrange that an apology be sent to the Norwegian Nobel Committee of
the Norwegian Parliament? The action of the Ambassador is of course known to the public,
but not much can be done to rectify the public damage to the U.S., I suppose.
Sincerely,
Linus
P.S. If you have left Washington, please turn this letter over to Horrig. L.P.
