Icelandic attitudes towards the U.S.

I am in Iceland this week for a geologic conference. I was out on a mid-week, mid-conference field trip to Thingvellir- a geologic rift zone and the assembly location for early Icelandic parliaments. Our guide for the day, one of the geology professors from the U. of Iceland was talking a bit about the history of Iceland and talked about how Iceland was “occupied” by the English during WW2 and then “occupied” by the Americans during the Cold War. Geez, is that what those guys really think? That they were occupied? The Brits were here to defend them from the Nazis in WW2 and we were here to defend them from the Soviets during the Cold War- that’s not an “occupation”. I don't know, maybe its just a language issue. On the tour bus, I was sitting next to a woman from Britain and I mentioned this to her and she thought it was kind of hosed up as well. She said that she had been on a tour earlier in the week where one of the Icelanders had said something similar. Hmmm...