Iceland in the Cold War Iceland in the Cold War Throughout the Cold War, the nation of Iceland was a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and allied with the United States, hosting a US military presence in Keflavík Air Base from 1951 to 2006. In 1986, Iceland hosted a summit in Reykjavík between United States President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, during which they took significant steps toward nuclear disarmament. Five years later, in 1991, Iceland became the first country to recognize the renewed independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania when they broke away from the Soviet Union. Early in
Shamrock Summit Shamrock Summit The Shamrock Summit was the colloquial name given to the 18 March 1985 meeting between Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and US President Ronald Reagan in Quebec City. It gained this nickname because of the Irish background of the two leaders and because the meeting was held the day after St. Patrick's Day. The summit was capped by a televised event where Mulroney, Reagan and their wives sang "When Irish Eyes are Smiling", which publicly exemplified the camaraderie between the two leaders. The event is considered a major political-cultural episode in Canada, mostly on the basis of the