House of Ice and Cod: the U.S.-Icelandic Alliance Throughout the Cold War
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ABSTRACT HOUSE OF ICE AND COD: THE U.S.-ICELANDIC ALLIANCE THROUGHOUT THE COLD WAR From 1946 to 2006, the Icelandic government made sure to protect their people, their elves, and their cod from foreign powers. However, in a Cold War world, the need for spheres of influence on the part of the United States complicated Iceland’s security. The U.S. foreign policy makers intended to use economic and military coercion to create an alliance with Iceland. Iceland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and offered an airbase in Keflavík to help the United States’ goal of collective security. The Icelanders and the British fought in three cod wars dragging the United States in to mediate between allies. The question of stationing military personnel and weapons further complicated their relationship. This work uses the range from 1946 to 2006 to show the ways in which two countries dealt with situations involving economics, the military, and the issues of alliance. Also, by showing these situations, one can view how the Cold War was truly a global war where nations large and small were affected in some way. Jeffrey Allen Moosios May 2015 HOUSE OF ICE AND COD: THE US-ICELANDIC ALLIANCE THROUGHOUT THE COLD WAR by Jeffrey Allen Moosios A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History in the College of Social Sciences California State University, Fresno May 2015 APPROVED For the Department of History: We, the undersigned, certify that the thesis of the following student meets the required standards of scholarship, format, and style of the university and the student's graduate degree program for the awarding of the master's degree. Jeffrey Allen Moosios Thesis Author Lori Clune (Chair) History Michelle DenBeste History Blain Roberts History For the University Graduate Committee: Dean, Division of Graduate Studies AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION OF MASTER’S THESIS X I grant permission for the reproduction of this thesis in part or in its entirety without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorbs the cost and provides proper acknowledgment of authorship. Permission to reproduce this thesis in part or in its entirety must be obtained from me. Signature of thesis author: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my parents, Ernie and Stella Moosios, for their love and support throughout my college career. Without them, I would never have had the opportunity to write this thesis. They have supported every decision I have made in school without question. Secondly, I would like to thank Lori Clune for her guidance and help with this work. She gave me a chance to find my topic and encouraged me to write on something that I was interested in. It is never easy when a graduate student comes to his advisor and says he wants to write about an obscure war involving a distant country dealing with fish, but she stuck with me (even though, naturally, she continuously made her “fishy” jokes). Also, I would like to thank Michelle DenBeste and Blain Roberts for being on my committee and giving feedback in order to make this work and my argument make sense. I would like to thank Brad Jones for encouraging me to enter the graduate program when I thought my college career was over. Lastly, I would like to thank my friends: Michael Owens, for looking up obscure wars on Wikipedia, finding my topic, and helping me every step of the way; Samantha Peel, for revising and asking the tough questions to make me think and rethink my work; and Oscar Cantu, for driving and researching with me at the Reagan and Nixon Libraries. I would also like to thank my AP U.S. History students for using parts of my thesis as a way to learn how to make or not make an argument. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER 1: AN IMPRESSIONABLE LITTLE COUNTRY ............................... 1 The Formation of Cold War Policy ................................................................. 12 The Keflavík Question .................................................................................... 15 The Benefits of Alliance ................................................................................. 19 NSC 2/1 and NATO ........................................................................................ 21 NSC-68 and the Defense Agreement .............................................................. 26 CHAPTER 2: THE CO(L)D WARS ...................................................................... 32 Laws and Extensions ....................................................................................... 32 1956: A Year of Crisis .................................................................................... 36 The Tests of Commitment ............................................................................... 42 The Second and Third Cod Wars .................................................................... 45 CHAPTER 3: AN END TO SIGNIFICANCE....................................................... 55 The Nuclear Question Re-Emerges ................................................................. 57 The Reykjavík Summit ................................................................................... 61 Foreclosure on the “Most Expensive Real Estate” ......................................... 65 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 70 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 73 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1. Icelandic responses to Soviet aggression. ............................................... 56 Figure 2. Cartoon found in Ken Aldeman’s Reagan At Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours That Ended the Cold War (New York: Broadside Books, 2014), 53. ................................................................................................ 63 CHAPTER 1: AN IMPRESSIONABLE LITTLE COUNTRY “Ber er hver að baki nema sér bróður eigi.” Icelandic for: Bare is the back of a brother-less man. “To say you have no choice is to relieve yourself of responsibility.” —Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men “We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe.” —Dan Quayle, VP under Bush Administration. On the afternoon of 30 March 1949, thousands of protestors marched in front of the Alþingishúsið throwing rocks, eggs, and whatever else they could find.1 These events shocked Icelanders and the Alþingi because they were not accustomed to scenes of violence.2,3 Windows shattered, the head of Parliament narrowly missed a rock to the head, and Reykjavík police rushed the protestors, beat them and eventually launched tear gas grenades into the crowd. The communist-sponsored newspaper supporting the protest wrote, “the meeting showed that when American door mats put their treason pact before the Alþingi, the inhabitants of Reykjavík will gather by the tens of thousands to protest and to prevent the pact from being approved.”4 Unfortunately for the newspaper the Icelanders’ protest of their country’s joining of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) failed. Iceland became a founding member of NATO. A similar event occurred almost thirty-three years later. 1 Meaning “House of Parliament,” pronounced Althingishusith. 2 Donald E. Neuchterlein, Iceland, Reluctant Ally (New York: Cornell University Press, 1961), 89. 3 Meaning “parliament,” pronounced Althingi. 4 Neuchterlein, Iceland, Reluctant Ally, 89. 2 2 On the weekend of 19 March 1982, about 150 Icelandic protesters gathered at the NATO base where American troops were stationed. When asked why they had come to the airport, the protestors stated “they were looking for elves who might be endangered by American phantom jets and Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) reconnaissance planes.”5 As reporter James Markham acknowledged, “The anti-NATO demonstrators’ inspection for elves was an event of small importance, but was a reminder that the base and its 3,000 United States Navy and Air Force personnel—who keep watch over a vital Soviet sea and air corridor—are in Iceland with only lukewarm support from the country’s 230,000 citizens.”6 One thirty-two-year-old protester, Omar Valdimarsson stated that “the base is a very touchy issue here. I don’t think there is anyone who likes the base, but there are those who see it as a necessary evil. Anything military is foreign to us. People with guns scare me.”7 The protests of 1949 and 1982 give the impression the Icelanders hated the thought of American or foreign troops occupying their soil since the beginning of NATO. This was not the case, however, because the relations between Iceland and the United States were much more complex than a simple love-hate relationship. Whether protecting the elves or the citizens, Icelanders made sure their voices were heard when discussing matters of foreign affairs. The Cold War divided the world into two spheres of influence aligned with two countries: the United States and the Soviet Union. Within these spheres lay 5 James M. Markham, “Iceland’s Elves are Enlisted in Anti-Nato Effort, “New York Times, March 30, 1982. Elves, or Huldufólk (secret people), have always been a part of Icelandic culture. In modern times, elves have caused issues when building plans are drawn or construction is planned. The Icelandic people come to the