General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why can't we have nice things like this? [View all]Scuba
Yeah Indeed we had a pro - even though he did had a few card down his sleeves - he was known as a man who could hold his spirit - way better than most - and also never afraid of drinking the other person under the table... Well he did had an alcoholic problem - but it worked very good when the other part - in this case the British was not so good with holding their spirit... Even though British tend to hold their spirit rather well compared to many others - but hey, we do have a form of moonshine, made up of potatoes and water - who is strong - maybe not 100 proof - but rather close 95 percent alcohol.... I guess Norway had many well educated diplomats who did Norway a very good job - even under challenging times when the two fronts was dangerously near clashing with each other...
And at least under most of the cold war we had another weapon - no secretary of State was requested to be "to good" in english - mostly because we had our own priorities under the cold war - mostly been able to have a friendly frontier with the russians - who we have a border with - and who many times under the cold war - was a challenge to tip-toe around the fact that we also was a member of the NATO alliance... If our secretary of State could look the other way sometimes - when US was trying to use some muscle to make Norway do something, that was against our best interest.. It could be a challenge to be the US ambassador in Norway - to convive their frustration - if our foreign office kind of look the other way SPecially when it come to our border with Russia - who was off limits to all foreign forces - in fact the most northern part of Norway Finmark was off limits to most NATO forces, because it was a way to make sure the russians was not trying to force their way into Finmark under hostilities with the US... It was kind of a "buffer" zone between Russia and NATO forces in Norway - even though it was anying as hell for americans who would have loved to have forces right at the door step of USSR... Norway also have something we called "dobbelt-vedtaket" going back to 1949, where we clearly stated that NO forreign forces was to be stationed in Norway during peace times - and that no nuclear weapon was to be stationed on norwigian ground or territory in peace time.. And it worked well, for more than 40 years - no one got what they wanted - but Norway managed to get what they wanted - a peacefully border with USSR - and no war on our territory...
Diclotican