Trust, but verify as a signature phrase by Reagan, who subsequently used it frequently when discussing U.S. relations with the Soviet Union. Using proverbs that the Russians could relate to may have helped relations between the two leaders. After Reagan used the phrase to emphasize "the extensive verification procedures that would enable both sides to monitor compliance with the treaty", at the signing of the INF Treaty, on 8 December 1987, his counterpart General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev responded, "You repeat that at every meeting," to which Reagan answered, "I like it." While Reagan quoted Russian proverbs, Mr. Gorbachev quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson, who
Iceland in the Cold War the Cold War shaped Icelandic politics for the next decades. A sense of greater global turmoil and internal threat led Icelandic statesmen to reconsider Iceland's security arrangements. The Czechoslovak coup d'état in February 1948 made the world seem less peaceful and made a communist coup in Iceland seem plausible. The Icelandic coalition government of the Independence Party, the centrist Progressive Party and the Social Democrats began to look for security guarantees for Iceland. Basing US military forces on Icelandic soil was considered domestically unfeasible at the time, so the options were between a Scandinavian Defence Union and NATO. When negotiations