Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-25T03:05:46.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The years of transition: Anglo-American relatons 1961–1967

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Alan Dobson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The term ‘Special Relationship’ can give the false impression that Britain and the US have related to each other in an unchanging way since the forging of close bonds during World War II. If, like the present author, one chooses to use this terminology it is important to identify how the relationship has changed over the years.

This article focuses on the period 1961–67, which was an important period of transition. In 1961, Suez notwithstanding, it was possible for British leaders to continue to think in terms of drawing on unique links with the US, some of which had been forged in World War II and still existed, others which had been developed in their common struggle against communism. By 1967 some of these links had been broken and others greatly weakened for a variety of reasons. Britain's relative world power had continued to decline, thus reducing her usefulness to the US; Britain began to look seriously to the EEC for its future and away from the US, which, for its part, was becoming increasingly preoccupied with Vietnam and the Far East in general; the economic structure Britain and the US had designed to manage the free world's. economy and in the direction of which they had cooperated extensively began to breakdown; and finally after the Kennedy–Macmillan friendship there was no really close relationship between British and American leaders until the mid-1970s. Before looking at this period of transition, however, it is necessary to review an earlier era when the Special Relationship was unquestioned.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , July 1990 , pp. 239 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Interview with James Callaghan, MP, conducted by the author, House of Commons, 26 February 1987.

2 Ibid.

3 For more details, see Dobson, A. P., The Politics of the Anglo-American Economic Special Relationship (Brighton and NY, 1988). Some of the narrative about the economic Special Relationship is drawn from that book.Google Scholar

4 H. S. Truman Library, PSF box 220, folder: NSC meetings, 74th, 12 December 1950: Ferrell, R. H., The Eisenhower Diaries (New York, 1981), entry 6 January 1953.Google Scholar

5 Macmillan, H., Pointing The Way (London, 1972), p. 284.Google Scholar

6 See Sorensen, T., Kennedy (New York, 1965), p. 558Google Scholar; Home, A., The Macmillan Years and Afterwards; in Louis, W. R. and Bull, H. (eds.), The Special Relationship (Oxford, 1986)Google Scholar; and Nunnerly, D., President Kennedy and Britain (London, 1972) and J. F. Kennedy Library, ‘Interview with H. Brandon’, 23 February 1970.Google Scholar

7 JFK Lib., POF, box 127, folder 5, Kennedy/Macmillan statement and ad hoc comments 8 April 1961.

8 Dimbleby, D. and Reynolds, D., An Ocean Apart (London, 1988), p. 231.Google Scholar

9 JFK, Lib., POF, box 127, folder 5, Gore to JFK, 18 May 1961.

10 See Nunnerly, ‘Brandon Interview’, and Macmillan, H., At The End of The Day (London, 1973), p. 111.Google Scholar

11 See Dobson, , Relationship, pp. 197–211.Google Scholar

12 See JFK Lib., NSF, box 170, folder: UK General 8/1/61—8/20/61, Ball to JFK, 7 August 1961; and Costigliola, F., ‘The Failed Design, de Gaulle and the Struggle for Europe’, Diplomatic History, 8, 3 (1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 See Macmillan, , Pointing, pp. 350–351Google Scholar; Bell, C., The Debatable Alliance (London, 1964), pp. 103–104; and JFK Lib., NSF, box 170, folder: UK General 3/1/61—5/15/61, McGeorge Bundy to JFK 7 April 1961.Google Scholar

14 Ibid. Ball to JFK, 7 August 1961.

15 JFK Lib., NSF, box 170a, folder: UK General 12/6/62—12/9/62, White House to Secretary of State, 7 December 1962.

16 See Horne, , ‘Macmillan’, pp. 93–95Google Scholar; Bayliss, J., Anglo-American Defence Relations 1939–84 (London, 1984), ch. 4Google Scholar; JFK Lib. Nunnerly, D., ‘Interview with Lord Thomeycroft’, 18 06 1969Google Scholar; Costigliola, , ‘Failed Design’, pp. 241–242.Google Scholar

17 Ibid. pp. 232–4;Ball, G., The Past Has Another Pattern (New York, 1982), pp. 261–264Google Scholar; Trachtenberg, Marc, ‘White House Tapes and Minutes of the Cuban Missile Crisis’, International Security 10, 1 (1985), p. 179.Google Scholar

18 For more detail of the Skybolt affair, see Sorensen, , KennedyGoogle Scholar; Horne, , MacmillanGoogle Scholar; Bell, , AllianceGoogle Scholar; Nunnerly, , KennedyGoogle Scholar; and Ball, , The Past.Google Scholar

19 Bayliss, , Defence Relations, p. 98Google Scholar; McNamara was prepared to let Britain have Polaris, but only providing that the US could snatch it back via a MLF under American command.

20 Ball, , The Past, pp. 265–266Google Scholar; Costigliola, , ‘Failed Design’Google Scholar.

21 See Horne, , Macmillan, p. 98Google Scholar; Nunnerly, , Kennedy, p. 165Google Scholar; and Ball, , The Past, pp. 266–268Google Scholar.

22 Ball, , The Past, p. 265Google Scholar; JFK Lib., NSF, box 235–8, folder: Presidential Trips, Nassau Macmillan Talks 12/62, Briefing Book.

23 Nunnerly, , Kennedy, p. 158Google Scholar; Ball, , The Past, pp. 265–266Google Scholar; Sorensen, , Kennedy, p. 566Google Scholar.

24 For text, see Bayliss, , Defence RelationsGoogle Scholar.

25 See Nunnerly, , ‘Brandon Interview’Google Scholar; compare mutual references in Wilson, H., The Labour Government 1964–70 (Harmondsworth, 1974)Google Scholar and Johnson, L. B., The Vantage Point (New York, 1971)Google Scholar; but also see A. P. Dobson, ‘Callaghan Interview’, February 1987, in which, after slight hesitation, he described Wilson's relations with LBJ as good; Dimbleby, Apart, ch. 13; L. B. Johnson Lib., GEN CO, box 76, folder CO 305 UK 1/1/65—7/1/65 Valenti to LBJ, 26 February 1965.

26 Ibid. 11/1/64—12/31/64, R. L. Gilpatric notes for McNamara, passed to McGeorg e Bundy, 26 October 1964.

27 See Dobson, , Relationship, pp. 211–227Google Scholar and ‘Callaghan Interview’.

28 See Wilson, , Labour GovernmentGoogle Scholar, chs. 3 and 4; Bayliss, , Defence Relations, pp. 137–149Google Scholar; and Dobson, ‘Callaghan Interview’.

22 See Wilson, , Labour Government, pp. 68–69Google Scholar; and Bayliss, , Defence RelationsGoogle Scholar, ch. 5.

30 See Dobson, , ‘Callaghan Interview’Google Scholar; Callaghan, J., Time and Chance, (London, 1987), p. 176Google Scholar; Grossman, R. H., The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister: vol. 1,1964–66 (London, 1975)Google Scholar, entries 12 November and 11 December 1964, and 11 February 1965; and Ponting, Clive, Breach of Promise: Labour in Power 1964–70 (London, 1989)Google Scholar, ch. 3.

31 Johnson, , Vantage Point, appendix A xi, pp. 597–598Google Scholar.

32 See Kitzinger, U., Diplomacy and Persuasion: How Britain Joined the Common Market (London, 1973), p. 40Google Scholar.

33 See Wilson, , Labour Government, pp. 116Google Scholar, 129–33, 135–6; LBJ Lib., NSF, Country File, box 206–7, folder: UK memos. vol. iii 2/65—4/65 memo, of conversation between Wilson, Fowler et al., 5 April 1965; ibid, box 210–12, folder: UK vol. xv 12/63—9/65, J. W. Barr, Acting Secretary of the Treasury t o LBJ, 10 September 1965.

34 Ibid, box 215–16, folder UK PM Wilson Visit, Briefing Book, 26 July 1966; Strange, S., Sterling and British Policy (London, 1971), p. 280Google Scholar.

35 Callaghan, , Time, p. 186Google Scholar.

36 LBJ Lib., Country File, box 215–16: UK Trendex, Francis Bator to McGeorge Bundy, ‘The UK Problem and Thinking about the Unthinkable’, 29 July 1965; ibid, box 208–9, Europe, USSR, UK, folder: UK memos. vol. viii 1/66–7/66, Fowler memo, for LBJ 14 July 1966.

37 Ibid, box 215–16, folder. Trendex, McGeorge Bundy memo, for LBJ 28 July 1965.

38 CMD. 2901, ‘The Defence Review’, February 1966.

39 LBJ Lib., NSF, Country File, folder: UK memos. vol. vi 7/65—9/65, McNamara to LBJ, 10 July 1965; Bayliss, , Defence Relations, p. 153Google Scholar.

40 Northedge, F., Descent From Power (London, 1974), p. 297Google Scholar, quoting The Times, 17 June 1966; Wilson, , Labour Government, ch. 15Google Scholar.

41 See Wilson, , Labour Government, ch. 15Google Scholar; ‘Callaghan Interview’; LBJ Lib., NSF, Country File, folder: UK memos. vol. viii. 1/66—7/66, Fowler to LBJ 14 July 1966.

42 Ibid.; LBJ Lib., GEN CO 305, 1963–69, folder: 7/13/66—11/3/66, Heller to LBJ, 24 July 1966.

43 LBJ Lib., NSF, NSC History, box 50, ‘The Trilateral Negotiations and NATO 1966–67’.

44 Dobson, . ‘Callaghan Interview’Google Scholar.

45 See Kitzinger, , DiplomacyGoogle Scholar; and Dobson, , Relationship, pp. 221–222Google Scholar.

46 LBJ Lib., NSF, Country File, box 208–9, folder: UK memos. vol. xiii, 1/6—7/66, US Embassy London to State Department; ibid, box 210–12, folder: UK memos. vol. xi 4/67—6/67, Bruce to Rusk.

47 LBJ Lib., NSF, Country File, box 215–16, folder: UK: Visit of PM H. Wilson, 6/2/67, Rusk to LBJ, 31 May 1967; Wilson, , LBJ, 31 May 1967Google Scholar; Wilson, , Labour Government, pp. 510–512Google Scholar, and Ovendale, R., The Origin of the Arab-Israeli Wars (London, 1984), ch. 10Google Scholar.

48 CMD. 3357, ‘Supplementary Statement on Defence Policy’, July 1967.

49 LBJ Lib., CF, CF, folder: Financial Relations, Callaghan to Fowler, 10 November 1967.

50 Wilson, , Labour Government p. 577Google Scholar.

51 Ibid. p. 579; Dobson, ‘Callaghan Interview’.

52 Kissinger, H., The White House Years (London, 1979), p. 91.Google Scholar