‘The Good Season’: October 1962 to March 1963

Abstract

Reporting to the Foreign Office in the first days of 1963, the British Ambassador to Iceland recorded his own experience of East-West relations since the Cuban Missile Crisis.¹ There had been, he noted, ‘a distinct rise in cordiality in the attitude of the staff of the Soviet Embassy here towards their Western colleagues’. At one cocktail party, the Soviets had proved to be ‘quite exceptionally affable’, and had also ‘gone to a good deal of trouble and expense’ to stage a New Year’s party for the children of all diplomatic staff in Reykjavik. The spirit of goodwill was not, however, universal: ‘This sudden spate of friendliness has obviously worried our American colleagues … American children only attended the New Year party under parental surveillance.’