Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.10.2011, Qupperneq 18

18
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2011
Words
Valur Gunnarsson
Photography
Hvalreki
RAMBO, ROCKY AND CHERNOBYL
Fast forward to 1986. The stagnation era
of Brezhnev is at an end in the Soviet
Union, due to its dynamic and (by Rus-
sian standards) young new General Sec-
retary, Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev
wants to stimulate the Soviet economy
with his twin policies of Perestroika
(“restructuring”) and Glasnost (“open-
ness”). But free speech comes easier
than economic success, and many of the
voices he unleashed hoping they would
criticise the failures of the system were
increasingly turning on him. On top
of this, the Soviet Union is mired in
its dirty little war in Afghanistan, ap-
parently as unwilling to learn from the
lessons of Vietnam as the Americans
themselves.
In the United States, Ronald Rea-
gan has won two presidential elections
largely on the strength of his optimism
to resounding chants of “U-S-A! U-S-
A!” However, all is not well in the land
of plenty. Reagan had promised to bal-
ance the budget, cut taxes and increase
military spending. The idea was that the
tax cuts would stimulate the economy to
the extent that the total sum of taxes col-
lected would be greater, even if the per-
centage were lower. Reagan’s GOP com-
petitor in 1980, George Bush, dubbed
this voodoo economics, but was silenced
with the position of Vice-President.
Only a year after Reagan took office, the
economy was in shambles, but he kept
going, running up a huge deficit to pay
for his policies. By his second term, he
was increasingly turning to foreign pol-
icy instead. In cinemas the year before,
Sly Stallone beat the Soviets in the ring
in ‘Rocky IV’ and re-fought the Vietnam
War in ‘Rambo II.’ It was now Reagan’s
turn to get in the ring with the Russians.
ICELAND ENTERS THE WORLD
(AGAIN)
Ever since the nation achieved indepen-
dence in 1944, the Icelandic economy
had been tightly regulated. Obtaining
foreign currency or permission to im-
port foreign goods mostly depended on
being granted ‘official permission.’ Un-
surprisingly, the officials in charge pre-
ferred giving said permissions to their
friends and family members. Travelling
abroad usually included long shopping
lists from acquaintances for products
unavailable at home. The media was
also strictly regulated. The state ran two
radio stations and a TV channel that op-
erated six days a week, eleven months
a year. This was all about to change.
In 1986, Reykjavík’s first proper shop-
ping mall, Kringlan, opened for busi-
ness. That same year, the first privately
owned radio stations and even a new
TV channel, Stöð 2, came into being.
These “free” media would eventually, as
in Russia later on, wind up in the hands
of a few tycoons, but that is an entirely
different story.
The year before, Iceland had won the
Miss World Competition and in 1986 an
Icelander became the World’s Strongest
Man for the second time in three years.
In general, Icelanders felt pretty good
about themselves and the superpower
meeting in Reykjavík was further proof
that Iceland had finally broken its isola-
tion and was claiming its place on the
world stage.
GORBACHEV AND THE DURACELL
BUNNY
The meeting in Reykjavík was a long
time coming. Nixon had pursued a pol-
icy of détente, avoiding direct conflict
between the powers. He took pride in
meeting with the Soviets, the Chinese
and even the French, sitting down with
French President Georges Pompidou at
a previous Reykjavík summit in 1973.
Reagan, however, showed little inter-
est in meeting with leaders other than
fellow conservatives Margret Thatcher
and Helmut Kohl. By the beginning of
his second term in 1985, no Superpower
summit had been held since the Carter
In 1986, Iceland was going through its own Perestroika of sorts,
although then-Prime Minister Steingrímur Hermannsson, with his rug-
ged face, full head of hair and old school charm, looked more
like a Reagan than a Gorbachev.
It was the second most important event to take place in Iceland during the
Cold War. However, it could easily have been one of the most important
events to take place ever, and not just in Iceland, but anywhere. World
peace seemed closer than ever before, yet so far away.
Icelanders were at this point not completely unused to being at the centre
of the universe. The first time the two Cold War superpowers met in Reyk-
javík, it was not to discuss world peace, but to play a game of chess. This
was the Fischer-Spassky chess match of 1972, and never before had so
much attention been focused on a small North Atlantic island.
The Meeting That
Almost
Changed Everything
Höfði 25 Years On