 On March 15, 1961, President John F. Kennedy named Parsons United States Ambassador to Sweden, heading up the embassy in the Diplomatstaden, Stockholm.Closely identified with American policy towards Southeast Asia, Parsons became the focus of criticism in Sweden as Swedish opposition to the United States' role in the Vietnam War mounted throughout the 1960s.Parsons left his post as Ambassador to Sweden on April 17, 1967, and less than a year later, his successor, William Womack Heath, was recalled to protest the participation of Swedish education minister Olof Palme in an anti-Vietnam War protest.