Kennedy, Johnson and the Defence of NATO: The Dynamics of Alliance 1962-68 (Contemporary Security Studies)

238 Pages·2006·3.1 MB·English

by  Andrew Priest

KENNEDY, JOHNSON AND NATO
Kennedy, Johnson and NATO is an incisive reassessment of Anglo-American
defence relations, which form a crucial part of international security.
Andrew Priest closely examines this key relationship by focusing on the
so-called Nassau agreement of December 1962. He clearly places Nassau in its
context and shows how multi-level collaboration continued between the US and
UK in NATO despite growing tensions over American involvement in Southeast
Asia and Britain’s global role. First, he shows how agreements made between
Presidents and Prime Ministers shape alliances by encouraging interaction
between politicians, government officials and military personnel at various levels
of formality. Second, by focusing on the NATO area, he assesses US–UK attitudes
to European and North Atlantic defence.
Traditionally, studies of US–UK relations at this time have tended to
concentrate on developing difficulties between Presidents and Prime Ministers
(particularly Harold Wilson and Lyndon B. Johnson) over global issues. This
study demonstrates the ‘dynamics of alliance’ through a nuanced approach at
high-political, official and ‘working’ levels, across different administrations
in the US and UK. Although more recently some authors have successfully
integrated such a ‘multi-layered’ approach particularly to studies of nuclear
affairs, they have tended to treat the 1962 Nassau agreement as something of a
dénouement.
This book will be essential reading for students of US foreign policy, British
foreign policy, Anglo-American relations, European–American relations and the
history of NATO.
Andrew Priest is Lecturer in International Politics, University of Wales,
Aberystwyth. He obtained his PhD in 2003 at the Department of American and
Canadian Studies, University of Birmingham.
CONTEMPORARY SECURITY STUDIES
NATO’S SECRET ARMY THE POLITICAL ECONOMY
Operation Gladio and terrorism OF PEACEBUILDING
in Western Europe IN POST-DAYTON
Daniel Ganser BOSNIA
Tim Donais
THE US, NATO AND MILITARY
BURDEN-SHARING THE DISTRACTED EAGLE
Peter Kent Forster and Stephen The rift between America and
J. Cimbala Old Europe
Peter H. Merkl
RUSSIAN GOVERNANCE IN
THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY THE IRAQ WAR
Geo-strategy, geopolitics and European perspectives on politics,
new governance strategy, and operations
Irina Isakova Jan Hallenberg and Håkan
Karlsson (eds)
THE FOREIGN OFFICE AND
FINLAND 1938–1940 STRATEGIC CONTEST
Diplomatic sideshow Weapons proliferation and
Craig Gerrard war in the greater
Middle East
RETHINKING THE NATURE Richard L. Russell
OF WAR
Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Jan Angstrom PROPAGANDA, THE PRESS
(eds) AND CONFLICT
The Gulf War and Kosovo
PERCEPTION AND REALITY David R. Willcox
IN THE MODERN YUGOSLAV
CONFLICT MISSILE DEFENCE
Myth, falsehood and deceit International, regional and
1991–1995 national implications
Brendan O’Shea Bertel Heurlin and Sten Rynning (eds)
GLOBALISING JUSTICE EUROPEANISATION OF
FOR MASS ATROCITIES NATIONAL SECURITY
A revolution in accountability IDENTITY
Chandra Lekha Sriram The EU and the changing security
identities of the Nordic states
ETHNIC CONFLICT AND Pernille Rieker
TERRORISM
The origins and dynamics of INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT
Civil Wars PREVENTION AND
Joseph L. Soeters PEACE-BUILDING
Sustaining the peace in post
GLOBALISATION AND conflict societies
THE FUTURE OF T. David Mason and James
TERRORISM D. Meernik (eds)
Patterns and predictions
Brynjar Lia CONTROLLING THE WEAPONS
OF WAR
NUCLEAR WEAPONS Politics, persuasion, and the
AND STRATEGY prohibition of inhumanity
The evolution of American Brian Rappert
nuclear policy
Stephen J. Cimbala CHANGING TRANSATLANTIC
SECURITY RELATIONS
NASSER AND THE Do the US, the EU and Russia form
MISSILE AGE IN THE a new strategic triangle?
MIDDLE EAST Jan Hallenberg and
Owen L. Sirrs Håkan Karlsson (eds)
WAR AS RISK MANAGEMENT THEORITICAL ROOTS OF US
Strategy and conflict in an FOREIGN POLICY
age of globalised risks Machiavelli and American
Yee-Kuang Heng unilateralism
Thomas M. Kane
MILITARY
NANOTECHNOLOGY CORPORATE SOLDIERS AND
Potential applications and INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
preventive arms control The rise of private military companies
Jurgen Altmann Christopher Kinsey
NATO AND WEAPONS OF TRANSFORMING EUROPEAN
MASS DESTRUCTION MILITARIES
Regional alliance, Coalition operations and the
global threats technology gap
Eric R. Terzuolo Gordon Adams and Guy Ben-Ari
GLOBALISATION, CONFLICT BOSNIAN SECURITY AFTER
AND THE SECURITY STATE DAYTON
National security in a New perspectives
‘New’strategic era Michael A. Innes (ed.)
Robert G. Patman (ed.)
KENNEDY, JOHNSON
THE POLITICAL ROAD TO AND NATO
WAR WITH IRAQ Britain, America and the
Bush, 9/11 and the drive to dynamics of alliance,
overthrow Saddam 1962–68
Nick Ritchie and Paul Rogers Andrew Priest
KENNEDY, JOHNSON
AND NATO
Britain, America and the dynamics of
alliance, 1962–68
Andrew Priest
First published 2006
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2006 Andrew Priest
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN10: 0–415–38534–2 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–96940–5 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–38534–3 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–96940–3 (ebk)
FOR MUM AND DAD

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements xi
List of abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1 Anglo-American defence relations in NATO 6
2 Skybolt, Polaris and Nassau 23
3 The Polaris project and NATO 51
4 The MLF after Nassau 62
5 Washington and the Labour Party 80
6 The end of the MLF and nuclear sharing 93
7 Allies under strain 122
8 Putting NATO first? 138
Conclusion 155
Notes 160
Bibliography 205
Index 217
ix