Twentieth-century Anglo-American relations

227 Pages·2001·0.9 MB·English

by  Jonathan Hollowell

Twentieth-Century
Anglo-American
Relations
Jonathan Hollowell
hollowell/94885/crc 15/2/01 10:51 am Page 1
Contemporary History in Context Series
General Editor: Peter Catterall, Lecturer, Department of History, Queen Mary
and Westfield College, University of London
What do they know of the contemporary, who only the contemporary know?
How, without some historical context, can you tell whether what you are
observing is genuinely novel, and how can you understand how it has
developed? It was, not least, to guard against the unconscious and ahistorical
Whiggery of much contemporary comment that this series was conceived. The
series takes important events or historical debates from the post-war years and,
by bringing new archival evidence and historical insights to bear, seeks to
re-examine and reinterpret these matters. Most of the books will have a
significant international dimension, dealing with diplomatic, economic or
cultural relations across borders. in the process the object will be to challenge
orthodoxies and to cast new light upon major aspects of post-war history.
Titles include:
Oliver Bange
THE EEC CRISIS OF 1963
Kennedy, Macmillan, de Gaulle and Adenauer in Conflict
Christopher Brady
UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS CAMBODIA, 1977–92
Peter Catterall and Sean McDougall (editors)
THE NORTHERN IRELAND QUESTION IN BRITISH POLITICS
Peter Catterall, Colin Seymour-Ure and Adrian Smith (editors)
NORTHCLIFFE’S LEGACY
Aspects of the British Popular Press, 1896–1996
James Ellison
THREATENING EUROPE
Britain and the Creation of the European Community, 1955-58

Helen Fawcett and Rodney Lowe (editors)
WELFARE POLICY IN BRITAIN
The Road from 1945
Jonathan Hollowell (editor)
TWENTIETH-CENTURY ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS
Simon James and Virginia Preston (editors)
BRITISH POLITICS SINCE 1945
The Dynamics of Historical Change
Harriet Jones and Michael Kandiah (editors)
THE MYTH OF CONSENSUS
New Views on British History, 1945–64
Wolfram Kaiser
USING EUROPE, ABUSING THE EUROPEANS
Britain and European Integration, 1945–63
hollowell/94885/crc 15/2/01 10:51 am Page 2
Keith Kyle
THE POLITICS OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF KENYA
Spencer Mawby
CONTAINING GERMANY
Britain and the Arming of the Federal Republic
Jeffrey Pickering
BRITAIN’S WITHDRAWAL FROM EAST OF SUEZ
The Politics of Retrenchment
Peter Rose
HOW THE TROUBLES CAME TO NORTHERN IRELAND
L. V. Scott
MACMILLAN, KENNEDY AND THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
Political, Military and Intelligence Aspects
Paul Sharp
THATCHER’S DIPLOMACY
The Revival of British Foreign Policy

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Twentieth-Century
Anglo-American
Relations
Jonathan Hollowell
St Peter’s College
Oxford
Foreword by Kathleen Burk
hollowell/94885/crc 15/2/01 10:51 am Page 4
Selection,editorial matter and Introduction © Jonathan Hollowell 2001
Foreword © Kathleen Burk 2001
Chapters 1–10 © Palgrave Publishers Ltd 2001
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Twentieth-century Anglo-American relations / [edited by]
Jonathan Hollowell.
p.cm.— (Contemporary history in context)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–333–80404–X
1.United States—Foreign relations—Great Britain.2.Great
Britain—Foreign relations—United States.3.United States–
–Foreign relations—20th century.I.Hollowell,Jonathan,1964–
II.Contemporary history in context series.
E183.8.G7 A682 2000
327.41073—dc21
00–066561
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd,Chippenham,Wiltshire
Contents
GeneralEditor’sPrefacebyPeterCatterall vii
ForewordbyKathleenBurk ix
IntroductionbyJonathanHollowell xi
NotesontheContributors xvii
1 IsoscelesTriangle:Britain,theDominionsandthe
UnitedStatesattheParisPeaceConferenceof1919 1
MargaretMacMillan
2 UnderpinningtheAnglo-AmericanAlliance:
theCouncilonForeignRelationsandBritain
betweentheWars 25
PriscillaRoberts
3 EricKnight’sWar:theCampaignforAnglo-American
Understanding 44
F.M.Leventhal
4 TheByrnesTreatyandtheOriginsofthe
WesternAlliance,1946–48 64
DaniloArdia
5 ‘Butwestward,look,thelandisbright:Labour’sRevisionists
andtheImaginingofAmerica,c.1945–64 87
StevenFielding
6 TheNumberOneReason:McCarthy,Eisenhower
andtheDeclineofAmericanPrestigeinBritain,1952–54 104
JussiHanhimaki
7 AVeryConsiderableandLargelyUnsungSuccess:
SirRogerMakins’WashingtonEmbassy,1953–56 124
SaulKelly
8 Anglo-AmericanRelationsandDiverging
EconomicDefencePoliciesinthe1950sand1960s 143
AlanP.Dobson
v
vi Contents
19 Eisenhower,EdenandtheSuezCrisis 166
PeterG.Boyle
10 LyndonJohnson,HaroldWilsonandthe
VietnamWar:aNotSoSpecialRelationship? 180
SylviaA.Ellis
Index 205
General Editor’s Preface
Earlyin1962aForeignOfficepaperon‘BritainthroughAmericanEyes’
warnedthat
itisprobablytruetosaythatalargeproportionofthepopulationis
ill-informed about Britain and has no more than a hazy idea of our
geography or history, overlaid with certain traditional beliefs about
socialism,colonialismandtheRoyalFamily.
Evenatthepolicymaking level,relationscould bebedevilledbyignor-
ance or misperceptions, not least in the furore over Skybolt which
ensued later that year. The problem, according to the Foreign Office
author, was that ‘While most foreigners are judged by what they do,
wearejudgedbywhatAmericansthinkweare.’
Neither this, nor the ignorance of which he complained, necessarily
meant that Anglo-American relations had ceased to be important.
Indeed,thediplomat’saphorismcouldsimplyreflecttheextensiveness
ofthecontactsbetweenthetwocountries.Despitetheincreasingpower
disparity between them, with Britain only spending about a tenth of
whattheUSdidondefencebytheearly1960s,theirinterestscontinued
to overlapeverywherearoundtheworld.Inthesecircumstancesitwas
perhapseasiertooperateonnormativeviewsofeachother,ofwhateach
otherwaslikelytodoinaparticularinstance,andofwhatAmbassador
Bruce described in 1961 as ‘the essential solidarity of informed self-
interestbetweentheEnglish-speakingpeoples’,eveniftheseviewsand

expectationsweretobedisappointed,sometimespainfully,onoccasion.
Indeed, the growing power disparity of the postwar years may have
encouraged this tendency. While American policymakers during the
cold war tried to structure the international behaviour of Britain to
conform to their perceived needs within a Manichaean view of the
world shared only to a limited extent by their allies, the British, in
turn, repeatedly concluded that they needed to retain what influence
theycouldinWashington.Otherwise,asHaroldMacmillanputit,they
‘could not count on American support in all circumstancesand would
be less able to stand up to Soviet threats against the UK or British
interestsoverseas’.
vii
viii GeneralEditor’sPreface
Much of the work on Anglo-American relations in recent years has
beenconcernedwiththiscoldwarperiod.Thisisunsurprising,reflect-
ing the increasing availability of documents for these years. However,
while this book adds to this literature, drawing on recently released
archives to cast new light on episodes such as the origins of NATO,
McCarthyism,SuezortheVietnamWar,oneofitsundoubtedstrengths
liesinthehistoricalrangethatitcovers.Theessaysherespantheyears
fromtheendoftheFirstWorldWartothelate1960s,aperiodinwhich
the relationship between Britain and America was arguably one of the
mostimportantdynamicsinworldaffairs.Intheprocesstheyprovidea
range of settings in which to examine the nature of Anglo-American
relations.EvenifsuchrelationsmaybecementedbyBruce’s‘informed
self-interest’theycanvaryovertime.Theycancertainlychangeaccord-
ingtogeographicalsetting,avariablethatcouldleadtouncharacteristic
behaviour–asMacmillanenjoyednotingin1963,
We shall not give British Guiana ‘independence’ only to create a
Cuba on the mainland. It is however rather fun making the Amer-
icansrepeatoverandoveragaintheirpassionatepleatoustostickto
‘Colonialism’and‘Imperialism’atallcosts.
And, not least,they canchange accordingto thepolicymaking level
beinginvestigated.Anglo-Americandiplomacyoperatesatanumberof
levels: between the respective armed and intelligence services; State
DepartmentandForeignOffice;ataninformallevelinvolvingorganisa-
tionssuchastheCouncilonForeignRelations;betweenpresidentand
prime minister. The essays collected here touch on all of these dimen-

sions of Anglo-American relations. Authored by leading scholars on
both sides of the Atlantic, the result is a book which provides a multi-
faceted set of analyses of one of the key international relationships of
thetwentiethcentury.
PETER CATTERALL
WestminsterCollege
Fulton,Missouri
and
InstituteofContemporaryBritishHistory
London
Foreword
There is a central theme to Anglo-American relations in the twentieth
century: the decline of Great Britain and the rise of the United States.
This was not a smooth trajectory: rather, there were episodic rises and
falls, but the primary direction was clear. This is not even a case of
hindsight. It was clear at the time, perhaps even more clear to Great
Britain than it was to the United States. The single most important
reason for this was need. The fact that Great Britain was convinced
that without the support of the United States she could not maintain
her foreign policies – nor even, at one juncture, her independence –
betrays this dependence. The United States, conversely, believed that
she could afford to ignore the outside world, at least until she
was attacked. But she did not fear attack beforehand, as did Great
Britain.
Itiswelltopointoutthatthefundamentalbasisofthisdependence
waseconomic.Formuchoftheperiod,certainlyuntil1943,themilitary
forcesofGreatBritainoutstrippedthoseoftheUnitedStates.Thecrucial
point, however, is that there was – and in theory, is – no limit to the
amount which the United States could – and can – spend in order to
achieve and maintain military dominance. In the early years of the
century, Great Britain had the economic resources to contemplate
spending what was in those days an impressive sum. This is no longer
thecase.Ifshecannotfinanceherforeignpoliciestotheextentthatshe
would like, she has to find another country to help. The only country
outside the Commonwealth to which she could turn, and can turn, is

the United States. The passing across of crude specie is no longer the
issue; now it is shared foreign policy goals, and the willingness of the
United States to contribute the greater share of the finance needed for
joint technology: intelligenceand nuclear weapons.Thecontributions
ofGreatBritainarediplomaticandmilitary prowess,andawillingness
andabilitytodiscuss,discreetly,foreignpolicyproblemsintheEnglish
language.
Itisnoticeablethatthepredominantamountofworknowbeingdone
on Anglo-American relations concentrates on the post-1945 period.
Theremaybeseveralreasonsforthis.Firstofall,muchworkhasalready
been done on the earlier period, and thus it is more difficult to find a
trulyfreshtopic.Secondly,andconnected,post-1945isfresherterritory,
ix