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Letter from Linus Pauling to Jerome Wiesner. December 13, 1963.
Pauling writes to recount his treatment by the United States Ambassador during his Nobel trip to Oslo, Norway.

Transcript

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.

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