65° - 01.07.1968, Blaðsíða 17

Iceland’s NATO Debate
by
BENEDIKT GRONDAL
According to the North Atlantic Treaty, its
signatories may leave NATO at the end of twenty
years, that is in April 1969. The Treaty does not
expire on this date and the organization con-
tinues, unless it dissolves from within, which to-
day seems unlikely.
There has already been a great debate in anti-
cipation of 1969. Each of the fifteen nations has
re-examined it’s own interests and attitudes to
NATO, and various groups within the Alliance
have debated its future.
Iceland has been no exception in this respect.
Special attention was focused on the alliance
when the NATO foreign ministers held their
spring meeting in Reykjavik in June. Further
debate is to be expected in the fall when the
Althing takes up the question of continuing Ice-
land’s membership.
When discussing Iceland and NATO, it is im-
portant to keep separate two questions, one con-
cerning Icelandic membership in the Alliance,
and the other the future of the Iceland Defense
Force. The Chairmen of three out of four poli-
tical parties have strongly indicated that they are
going to favour continued NATO membership,
but within these same parties there is a growing
desire to reexamine separately the local defense
of Iceland.
In the NATO debate of the past two decades
these problems, which Icelanders of our genera-
tion have had to face, reach far back in the
nation’s history.
II
For centuries Iceland was isolated and the Ice-
landers felt remote from the conflicts of Europe.
It is customary to believe that distance alone was
the cause of that isolation. This is not quite true.
When there was anarchy on the Atlantic, pirates
did not find it too far to sail to Iceland to plunder,
as history vividly reminds us. Only after the
Royal Navy had established its rule of the ocean
and began to protect shipping and fishing, did
Iceland find peace and security.
It is strange that the British, who built an
Empire around the globe, should leave alone a
major island only a few hundred miles from their
own coasts. Their best opportunity to occupy
Iceland came during the Napoleonic Wars, when
the United Kingdom was, for some years, also at
war with Denmark. At first Iceland suffered be-
cause her trade with the continent was broken
off, but the British soon corrected that. Ships of
the Royal Navy were frequent visitors in Iceland
during these years, but, as one commander ex-
plained in a report to his admiral, he did not
appropriate the country as it would cause His
Majesty more expense than profit!
When the Icelanders began to fight for total
separation from Denmark, they soon realized
what a difficult problem the security of an Ice-
landic Republic would be. They knew that an
unarmed state would be unique in this world, and
many prominent people at one time or another
advocated the estblishment of a national guard.
Some pointed out that Iceland would have to
reach defense agreements with other states as it
would be unable to defend itself. Thus we find
back in the 19th Century and in the early years
of the 20th basically the same debate which has
been carried on ever since the establishment
of the Republic in 1944, culminating in the poli-
tical struggle about NATO membership.
Continued on page 24.
Since graduating from Harvard University in
1946, Benedikt Grndal has worked with Aljoyfiu-
blaSiS, the Social Democrat newspaper, in jobs
ranging from reporter to editor-in-chief. Since
1956 he has been a representative to the AIJring
for the Social Democrat party, and since late
1967 has managed to fill the position of political
editor on Al\>ySublaSi3 as well.
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