Iceland had been desperately poor from many hundreds of years ago up until WWII. They declared themselves neutral when war broke out but we pretty quickly invaded them and then, almost as quickly, handed them over to the Americans. The Americans organised a lot of construction (Keflavik airport etc) and established a substantial military presence which boosted their economy. I guess this is where all the American-looking stuff comes from.
The Americans had agreed to leave once the war was over but Iceland turned out to be a very good place for surveillance (radar, I guess, and maybe radio listening and airborne spying ?) of the Russians. ISTR they even justified their continued presence by saying that the war wasnât over, and then pointing at Korea ! Public protests continued and in the end the US finally shut its military bases down. Wiki says in 2006 !
My daughter has just come back and I had a chat with her last night. She said there were a lot of tourists,and nearly everyone she spoke to was from the states.
