Fiercely Independent Iceland Plays Reluctant Host to American Forces

REYKJAVIK, Iceland —  When word reached Iceland that the U.S. military planned large-scale maneuvers beginning June 17, the underlying strains of anti-Americanism surfaced on this fiercely independent island nation.

June 17 is Iceland’s national day, and the U.S. forces had to delay the start of their exercises by three days because of an angry 11th-hour debate in the Icelandic Parliament and a warning from Prime Minister Steingrimur Hermannsson that the timing of the maneuvers was unwise.

Foreign Minister Jon Baldvin Hannibalsson also scaled down the maneuvers from 1,300 to 1,000 reservists to allay a parliamentary outcry over a U.S. officer’s erroneous description of the exercises as the largest in Iceland since World War II.

In this strategically important North Atlantic country, proud of its independence, reliance on the American military for defense draws gratitude from some and rancor from others.

Iceland is the only member of the 16-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization with no army or navy. Under the NATO treaty, the Iceland Defense Force is all-American.

With 250,000 inhabitants, Kentucky-sized Iceland has no interest in raising its own army, and the suggestion often sparks astonishment and laughter.

“We are this unique nation that tries to maintain its independence without any military force,” Hannibalsson said in a recent interview.

When Iceland won independence from Denmark in 1944, most people saw little point in establishing an army, he explained. “Who was it going to deter?”

In World War II, the British beat the Germans to Iceland and turned over its defense to the Americans.

Col. Andrew Duncan of the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London said Iceland was “a rather large aircraft carrier,” halfway between Europe and North America. It is also on Soviet submarine routes into the North Atlantic.

The American presence is no longer the issue it was in the 1970s, but it is still viewed with ambivalence.

At the government’s request, enlisted service personnel in the 3,300-strong American force have a midnight-to-6 a.m. curfew. Armed Forces Television is also barred from broadcasting outside the NATO base at Keflavik, 31 miles south of Reykjavik, where the Americans live.

Three of Iceland’s four major parties have consistently backed the American presence, but a September, 1987, poll of 1,753 people by the University of Iceland found just 41% wanted the Americans to stay. Thirty three percent wanted them to leave and 26% said they didn’t care.

By contrast, more than 80% consistently support Iceland’s membership in NATO.

Opposition to the U.S. military is led by a vocal left-wing minority.

“We have been very unfriendly to them,” said Gudrun Helgadottir, president of Iceland’s Parliament, the Althing, and a member of the left-wing People’s Alliance.

The alliance, part of the three-party center-left coalition government, believes the U.S. presence makes Iceland a military target and endangers Iceland’s culture and language, she said.

Incidents like the timing of the military maneuvers by U.S. reservists from Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts bring to light the Icelanders’ sensitivities.

“All of a sudden, it was a matter of national honor not to have those exercises on national independence day, and all of a sudden, people discovered they were a disgrace because now we’re living in a period of disarmament and peace,” Hannibalsson said.

He gave the go-ahead for the exercise, code-named Northern Viking ‘89, but changed the dates to June 20-28. He said it was far from the largest held here and was similar to maneuvers in 1985 and 1987, which he said nobody noticed.

In May, Iceland officially protested a farewell speech by the outgoing U.S. commander, Rear Adm. Eric McVadon, in which he urged Icelanders who support the American forces to speak out. McVadon also implied that Icelandic authorities were ungrateful to U.S. troops.

A U.S.-NATO request to build a second airport in northern Iceland has also aroused critics who fear a military buildup.

Hannibalsson said he will decide in a few months whether to authorize a feasibility study. If Iceland says no, Greenland has expressed willingness to have the airport.