Word: iceland
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Although its people think of themselves as neutral, Iceland has been a NATO member since 1949. The country has neither an army nor a navy, but the Keflavik base, which monitors Soviet ship traffic in the crucial North Atlantic sea-lanes, is staffed by some 3,000 U.S. military personnel. When Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze was discussing the summit, he told reporters that his delegation knew they would be safe in Reykjavik. Why? "You (Americans) have a very big base there," he said, smiling...
...summit will give Gorbachev a chance to further a long-standing Soviet foreign policy goal of wooing Iceland out of NATO. The Kremlin has been more than cordial, backing Iceland on international matters even when it was not in Moscow's immediate interest to do so. During the so-called cod wars of the 1950s and '70s, when Iceland gradually enlarged its territorial control of fishing rights to 200 miles, the Soviets protested but nevertheless became the first major nation to recognize the new limits. In return, Iceland expanded its trade with Moscow and now provides the Soviets with about...
...Iceland had a glorious dawn, and has lain in twilight ever since," wrote British Historian James Bryce after an 1872 visit to the island. "It is hardly possible that she should again be called on to play a part in history." This week, however, Iceland's very remoteness has thrust it onto center stage. President Reagan reportedly chose Reykjavik over London for this meeting to minimize distractions. The driving force behind this superpower outing, according to both Soviet and U.S. officials, is "less is best." In attracting the two leaders, Iceland's spartan isolation may have been its major selling...
...then, has Gorbachev seemed so eager to make a deal, proposing compromises on intermediate missiles and releasing Daniloff in order to get a face-to-face meeting with Reagan in Iceland? One reason may be that the Soviets, with their penchant for worst-case analysis, consider it possible that the next American President may be even less easy to do business with than Reagan. They can foresee an American President who is more vigorously anti-Soviet and even more committed to strategic defense than is Reagan. As they survey the U.S. political landscape, Soviet-American-affairs specialists are noticeably curious...
...paragraph. Gorbachev declared that he and Reagan should "personally involve" themselves in preparations for a full- scale summit meeting in order to give an "impulse" to their bureaucracies to draft something the two leaders could sign. To that end, he proposed a quick presummit meeting in either Britain or Iceland. Reagan, like Gorbachev a believer in personal diplomacy, was intrigued. But though Shultz, Poindexter and Regan all counseled acceptance, the President decided to sleep on it. By next morning Reagan had made up his mind. He instructed Shultz, who was to meet Shevardnadze later that day, to say yes, subject...