Word: iceland
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Iceland's current internal disorders create a situation which distorts the significance of that small island nation far out of proportion to its size. The Icelandic Parliament's recent resolution, to be voted on in June, would compel NATO forces to withdraw from the country. More than forcing retreat from a vitally strategic position, the resolution, if passed, would constitute a serious and growing threat to NATO cohesion...
Although maintaining no military forces of its own, Iceland harbors one of the largest NATO air and missile bases containing several thousand NATO troops, hundreds of planes, and large-scale rocket installations. Lying midway between Moscow and New York on the Great Circle air route, the base at Keflavik would be a prime center of operations in the event of general...
...Iceland. The resolution of Iceland's Parliament for the withdrawal of U.S. troops (TIME, April 9) is "understandable," said Dulles, in that the 5,000-man U.S. garrison was a large one for Iceland's 160,000 people to absorb: "There is, I think, a feeling in Iceland that perhaps the recent Soviet moves make this less necessary. But I do not think that it is reflective of anything other than a desire to minimize the presence of foreign troops, insofar as it can safely be done." Still open for discussion at a future NATO meeting: "The question...
...sounding off as he did, Premier Mollet reflects a Europe-wide mood that is increasingly jeopardizing NATO's purpose. Iceland's Parliament has called for withdrawal of NATO troops from the island on the ground that tensions have eased so much since Geneva. In answer to Mollet, the Bonn government last week sent Paris a bristling note that all but accused the French Premier of adopting the Soviet line. Germans thought they heard in Mollet the dawn echoes of a familiar French dream: an unspoken alliance with Russia against a strong Germany...
What was wrong in Iceland? Partly, the answer was domestic politics. Premier Olafur Thor's coalition government broke up over the issue. Then the Progressive Party, Iceland's second biggest party, joined with several minority parties to push the measure through the Althing. All this might be changed by new elections in June, depending on who wins (the Progressives have 22% of the vote, the Communists about 15%). The possibility that the whole thing might be reversed in June led the Pentagon and State Department to play down the importance of the withdrawal request. Yet the reason that...