Iceland in the Cold War due to clerical errors. Icelandic courts approved warrants by the Icelandic police to tap the phones of prominent Icelandic communists on six occasions during the period 1949-1968: During the 12-year reign of the , US-Icelandic relations were at their calmest. The government initiated major economic reforms that liberalized Iceland's economy and reduced Iceland's dependence on barter trade with the USSR. The Cod Wars were a series of confrontations between the United Kingdom and Iceland regarding fishing rights in the North Atlantic. Each of the disputes ended with Iceland's victory. The final Cod War concluded with a highly favorable agreement for
Cod fisheries that can be taken not only with nets but with fishing-baskets," and around 1600 English fishing captains still reported cod shoals "so thick by the shore that we hardly have been able to row a boat through them." In the early sixteenth century, fishermen from England, France, Spain and Portugal discovered the best places to fish for cod in the waters off Newfoundland, and how best to preserve the fish for the journey home. The French, Spanish and Portuguese fishermen tended to fish on the Grand Banks and other banks out to sea, where fish were always available. They salted