In reply to the Berlin blockade by Moscow,
London accepts the stationing of American B-29 bombers
capable of carrying atomic bombs on British soil and even that
the final use of these weapon would not be subject to a British veto.

title

US - UK :: The 'Special Relationship'
.

Dis donc, Oncle Sam et John Bull, sé kif - kif ou copain - cop?

'Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired
signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not
fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.' -Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S.
general and 34th president (1890-1969).

'I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to
promote peace than our g
overnments. Indeed, I think that people want peace
so much that one of these days governments had better ge
t out of the way
and let them have it.' -Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th
president (1890-1969).

"Les relations des Etats-Unis avec la Grande-Bretagne sont semblables à celles de Bill Clinton avec Monica Lewinsky" (dixit "une forte tête du groupe parlementaire travailliste", d'après Patrice Lestrohan, Canard enchaîné du 25.2.2003, "Tony Blair, Oncle Sam' suffit").

  • WHAT relationship?
  • WHY so special ?

> Une 'relation privilégiée' ? Comment expliciter cette collocation ? Quel est l'avis des traductologues ?

> A mon avis "relations privilégiées" conviendrait sans problème - je dirais plutôt un pluriel, car 'relationship' couvre un éventail plus large qu'une simple relation. Je suis certaine que les linguistes pourront nous décortiquer le pourquoi des comment de cette intuition...

Sinon
"les relations particulières" me vient à l'esprit, avec une connotation qui n'existe pas en anglais... mais qui conviendrait peut-être à certains aspects de la question ? : ) Une "entente privilégiée" ? bof. - Georgie, agrégée.

> All this whiggish history... : ( I don't know what y'all think, but isn't this a particularly unwieldy topic? - Chris Wig., certifiée.

  • SIGNALEES RESSOURCES
  • Special Relationship - infos et documents recueillis par Fayçal Titah.

  • La Bibliographie d'univ Pau-Pays.

  • MP3 : Listen to Churchill about the iron curtain in Fulton,Missouri.

  • Out loud : Michael Parsons suggests we pay a visit to the History and Politics site which has real audio speeches, in particular
    • the complete Sinews of Peace speech (Fulton, Missouri), and
    • George C. Marshall's speech announcing that the economic recovery of Europe would be a major goal of US foreign policy.
  • ON Y PENSE ET ON DISSERTE TOUS EN ROND...
  • fac Tours : "In the 1850s, Ralph Waldo Emerson predicted:"England, an old and exhausted island, must one day be contented, like other parents, to be strong only in her children." How true is it to say that, for the British, the idea of a special relationship with the US was in effect an attempt to follow Emerson's advice ?"

  • univ. Essex : sujet proposé par Dr. Karen Jones, a teaching fellow in the Department of History.

  • La stratégie américaine et l'Europe par Bruno Colson de l'Institut de Stratégie Comparée - plus de stratégie et de jouer avec des idées que d'une brute exposition de faits...

  • The Bulldog Barks On : Time's December 16, 2002 issue article about David Carradine book's on Churchill.

  • a special report on NATO - 8 pages on its 50th anniversary in an old issue of Greencard (april 1999)

  • "Retour sur la crise des missiles à Cuba" par Daniele Ganser in Monde Diplo, nov. 02.

  • BBC link on UK foreign policy.

US/GB : FRISSONNANT PELOTAGE... chez Ophrys & Ploton - livré sous 3 j. par Decitre (sans pub) :

  • "Les relations anglo-américaines, une 'special relationship'?" par Michael Parsons, univ Pau.

> admirablement bien écrit - très clair, se lit comme un roman. - Flo de Lyon.

> Très utile, le Parsons. Il a notamment le grand avantage d'être synthétique et écrit dans l'optique de la question d'agrégation.
C'est pour le moment le seul de cet ordre... Cependant, je dirais que dans un deuxième temps, il est nécessaire de compléter par d'autres lectures... - Jé Rhum.

> ouvrage très clair comme intro au sujet en effet: même s'il comporte quelques fautes de frappe - l'auteur a dû le finir de façon précipitée lorsque le sujet d'agreg fut sorti. L.°°

> Autre intérêt , son prix raisonnable - moins des fatidiques 15 Àufs rôts 24... - pour une fois !

> Michael Parsons indique aussi de nombreux liens internet en bas des pages > Sans omettre son own Relationship page > et son univ-paloise Politique, société et discours du domaine anglophone.

°° NDWM : cette problématique on la connaît, dûe au ramenage - pour raisons de bureaucratie ministérielle sans doute? - des agrégations internes d'août à février, ce qui n'arrange auteurs de livres, ni correcteurs-effeuilleurs du çned, ni candides as...

  • MAN'S LLANDUDNO : TRIPLE RING : oct. 9, 48.

> See below an extract of an important speech which Churchill made on October 9, 1948 in Llandudno, in Wales, his declaration about the three circles.

"As I look out upon the future of our country in the changing scene of human destiny I feel the existence of three great circles among the free nations and democracies. The first circle for us is naturally

  • the British Commonwealth and Empire, with all that comprises. Then there is also

  • the English-speaking world in which we, Canada, and the other British Dominions and the United States play so important a part. And finally there is also

  • United Europe.

These three majestic circles are coexistent and if they are linked together there is no force or combination which could overthrow them or even challenge them.

Now if you think of the three inter-linked circles you will see that
we are the only country which has a great part in every one of them.

We stand , in fact,
at the very point of junction, and here in this Island at the centre of the seaways and perhaps of the airways also have the opportunity of joining them all together.

If we rise to the occasion in the years that are to come it may be found that once again we hold the key to opening a safe and happy future to humanity, and will gain for ourselves gratitude and fame."


- Winston Churchill, 9 October 1948.


Source : 'Conservative Mass Meeting: a speech at Llandudno, 9 October 1948" in Europe Unite : speeches 1947 & 1948, London, Cassel, 1950.

>
Je crois qu'il a prononcé ce discours à l'occasion de la Conservative Party Conference in Llandudno (oct.1948).

Churchill était alors Party Leader
dans l'opposition.

He observed that Britain's primary overseas interests lay in three interlocking 'circles'

  • in Europe,
  • in the Empire and
  • in the 'special relationship' across the Atlantic.

For over two decades after 1945, successive British governments pursued a foreign policy strategy which sought to preserve their power and influence in all three of these consent/three c'circles'.

  • Le Dumbrell

    A special relationship Anglo-American relations in the Cold War and after par John Dumbrell, éditions MacMillan. Concerne surtout les détails des années 60 à 90.

    LU pour vous -

I. Early Cold War relations

- Britain was more concerned than the Truman administration over the Soviet threat.

- "Groves-Anderson memorandum was produced in November 1945 by US General L.R. Groves and Sir John Anderson (British cabinet head responsible for nuclear weapons development. The memorandum declared : "The three Governments, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, will not use atomic weapons against other parties without prior consultation with each
other".

- By mid-1946, London and Washington disagreed over these issues of consultation and nuclear partnership + clear differences over the Middle East.

- 1950 : first year of the Korean War. Britain was spending a larger percentage of its national income on defence than was the USA (7,7 compared to 6,9 %).

- 1953-1961 : presidency of Eisenhower. The SR suffered its major crisis. Eisenhower saw the British relationship as one relationship among many and ignored the special status it had begun to acquire during the mid-to-late 1940's.

- 26 July 1956 : nationalization of the Suez Canal provoked a strong response from Eden.
Nasser announced his intention to use canal tolls (the canal was owned by Britain and France).
London considered a military response hoping that US support would be forthcoming on account of Nasser's connections with Moscow. Israel was recruited to provide a pretext for Anglo-French invasion. An Israeli attack on Egypt on 29 October was followed by an Anglo-French ultimatum.

The British Cabinet approved military action despite US disapproval. By 8 November, after US pressure and economic pressure on the sterling pound, GB accepted a ceasefire and a troop withdrawal.

- 1957 : Sandysœ White Paper envisaged significant conventional defence cuts and the surrendering of many imperial commitments. (Duncan Sandys was defence minister in Macmillanœs Conservative government of 1957-1963)

II. Kennedy-Macmillan period

- "The Kennedy-Macmillan days of the transatlantic partnership revived a relationship between the leaders of the two countries which was underpinned by a degree of personal friendship such as had not existed since Roosevelt and Churchill forged the original bond." John Dickie (1994)

- Met for the 1st time at Key West in Florida in March 1961 to discuss the crisis in Indochina.

- The partnership involved defence and especially nuclear defence with the Polaris deal

- Macmillan was impressed with JFK's intelligence but described Johnson (vice president) as "an acute and ruthless politician but not a man of any intellectual power".

- 1961 : LIVEOAK (US military planning for a response to a Soviet move on Berlin). Critized by the British.

Macmillan, encouraged by JFK, applied to join the Community. But it raised an area of dispute about Britainœs economic links with communist regimes (trading with the enemy)

- 1962 : Cuban Missile Crisis. Macmillan became member of Kennedy's executive committee and was closer to the evolution of policy than the US Congress.

- First, Macmillan was in favour of an invasion but he rapidly began a search for diplomatic compromises.

III. Johnson to Carter

Period of problematical leader relations between Johnson and Wilson, and between Nixon and Heath.

1964-1970

- Wilson had subscribed to the Keep Left Groupœs 1951 manifesto (One Way Only) which was extremely critical of US policy.

Johnson described Wilson as a "little creep camping on my doorstep".

- Early summer of 1965, the US would lead a multilateral rescue for the sinking pound and extend loans to GB.
In return, Wilson would abandon "socialist" policies of high public spending, accept deflation and offer rhetorical support for the USA in Vietnam.

- Wilson's failure to devaluate the pound before November 1967 was said to be a consequence of American pressure.

1970-1974

- "Of all British leaders, Heath was the most indifferent to
the American connection and perhaps even to Americans individually." (Kissinger)

- Heath didn't have the pro-Americanism of other British PM's.
- The Middle Eastern, Yom Kippur, war of October 1973 provoked a major dispute between the transatlantic allies.
Throughout the war, London and Paris concurred in the view that Israel, sure of US support, was guilty of intransigence regarding the land obtained in 1967.

1974-1977

- Both Wilson and Callaghan were concerned to rehabilitate the relation which they saw Heath as having damaged.

- On nuclear policy, Wilson resisted the pressure coming from Labour Party grassroots to rupture the American connection.

- The big test for US-UK cooperation between 1974 and 1976 came in relation to the overthrow of the Makarios regime in Cyprus. Even when Turkey invaded on 20 July 1974, the US resisted London's calls for an Anglo-American military response.

- 1975 : Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The CSCE process provided London with a coordinating role, a link between Washington and a new integrated West European diplomacy.

1977-1980

- Callaghan developed a cordial relationship with Carter. The conclusion of a major civil air agreement in 1977 augured well for this relationship.

- 1979 Conservative victory regarded with disappointment in Washington.

MAIL
>
Ai commencé le Baylis
Anglo-American Relations since 1939
.
L'intro est très bien mais la suite consiste surtout en des sources primaires (discours, lettres). Intéressant, mais il faut déjà connaitre le sujet. - L J.

  • Downloadable gift des éd. du Temps : Le crime organisé à l'écran, chapitre sur Force of evil + intro générale + table des matières + biblio + Mythes et réalité de la relation spéciale.

  • Article de Michael Parsons sur Le Times et la guerre des Malouines - aspects du discours de la guerre (en format PDF).

INTRAITS D'ARGENTINE

NDWM - à propos de conflits entre alliés des US : rapprocher des rapports -US-Israël-Palestine-Irak-Pays arabes en 2003 ?

... Les US furent très embêtés.

Si
l'Argentine était un de leurs alliés les plus fidèles contre le communisme en Amérique latine, leur attachement à la Grande-Bretagne restait indéfectible.

Au sein de l'Administration Reagan, les «américanistes» - notamment
Mrs Jeane Kirkpatrick - et les pro-européens comme Caspar Weinberger, secrétaire à la Défense ou le secrétaire d'État, le général Alexander Haig, se faisaient face.

Nommé médiateur, Haig entreprit une diplo-navette entre Buenos Aires et Londres pour tenter de désamorcer le conflit entre alliés des US.

Sa volonté de donner une impression non partisane lui valut le surnom de « honest broker ». Irrités, nombre de Britanniques voulaient que les US clament ouvertement leur soutien à la Grande B.

Il fallut attendre le 30 avril pour que Reagan y consente.


En fait les US fournissaient déjà à la Grande B. une aide matérielle substantielle sans laquelle, aux dires de certains responsables américains, les forces armées britanniques n'auraient pu remporter la victoire sur les Argentins.

La Grande-Bretagne sollicita aussi ses partenaires européens qui ne tardèrent pas à lui apporter leur soutien, acceptant d'imposer les sanctions économiques qu'elle souhaitait et l'embargo total sur les livraisons d'armes à la Junta.

Ce n'est que plus tard qu'on apprit qu'une équipe de techniciens français restés en Argentine continuait d'aider les Argentins à mettre en place leurs missiles Exocet...

  • Bon point de départ - le plan de cours Specrelat proposé à univ Essex.

  • La SAES propose une base de données spécrèles. Aller à Concours, puis à Bibliographies.

  • Article in a September 2002 issue of The Guardian : "Why our leaders love to get cosy with Washington."

  • Quelques illustrations sur la fameuse relation, + infos sur Uncle Sam et John Bull...

HOT BREAD FROM NEW ZEALAND

Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century Of friendship, conflict and the rise and decline of superpowers,
by Alan P. Dobson, Routledge (192 pages, NZ$ 66.-).

An interesting, concise book - presenting an overall view on Spec'rel. - Jos Tara.


Contents

Acknowledgements

    I. The lion and the eagle : of twisted tails and plucked feathers

A brief digression on method
Identifying the contours of the relationship

2. Assertion and response 1900-19(18 pages)
Resolving differences and changing defence policies
Economic rivalry

The impact of war
Associated but not allied

3. Stability and change 1919-39(25 pages)
Debts, navies and economic policies 1920-5
Security and economic depression 1925-34
The dictates of sentiment and the needs of self-interest 19
34-9

4. In war and Cold War 1939-51(18 pages)
Intelligence, atomic and military co-operation 1941-5
Personal relations
Postwar security plans
Economic policy
An incomplete restoration of special relations 1946-51

5. Conservatively special 1951-61(23 pages)
Churchill and Trunan ; Churchill and Eisenhower 1951-5
The Far and Middle East
Suez and its consequences 1956-61
Into the 1960s

6. Years of transition 1961-79(20 pages)
Economic policies
Nuclear defence
Sterling, defence and Bretton Woods 1964-70
On losing one's way 1970-4
Picking up the pieces 1974-9


7. Interests and sentiment 1980-95, and beyond(16 pages)
Reagan and Thatcher 1981-9
Changes and re-adjustments 1990-5

Concluding notes
Bibliography
Index

.
  • ANGLOSPHERE FOR EVER ?

Article sur la relation spéciale, par... un Anglais, bien entendu intitulé "GREAT BRITAIN AND THE U.S. : PERFECT TOGETHER".

Article intéressant, d'abord parce que subjectif :

  • montre la jalousie de la GB par rapport à la relation US/Mexique
  • passe en revue des exemples historiques de solidarité US/GB,
  • tente une justification de la "relationship" en remontant aux origines communes, systèmes politiques...

Le journaliste aborde les implications de la "relationship".
Il en ressort clairement une volonté de l' "Anglosphere" de faire bande à part contre le reste du monde, à travers notamment le projet "Echelon"... - F.T.

  • P'TIT LU FOR YOU

article « Mythes et réalités de la relation spéciale » par Pauline Schnapper.

Pierre angulaire de la vision stratégique des gouvernements britanniques après la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, premier en importance des «trois cercles» de leur politique étrangère, la « relation spéciale» avec les États-Unis n'a cessé de faire débat au Royaume-Uni, tant chez les élites politiques que parmi les historiens qui ont tenté d'en rendre compte.

C'est que derrière une apparente simplicité, voire évidence - les gouvernements britanniques et américains successifs ont entretenu des liens politiques et économiques privilégiés à partir de l'entrée en guerre des États-Unis et jusqu'à aujourd'hui la relation spéciale s'est avérée un objet complexe, relatif dans le temps et dans son intensité, partiellement mythique, et qui échappe à toute définition rigide.

Elle a pourtant été au cFur de la vision du monde de Churchill en 1945-1946, et a durablement imprégné la politique étrangère du Royaume-Uni pendant toute la durée de la guerre.

  • TENTATIVE DE DEFINITION

Les termes utilisés ont varié «close», «natural», etc.) mais qu'on l'accepte ou le nie, le terme de référence est bien celui de «relation spéciale» (special relationship) entre le Royaume-Uni et les États÷Unis.

C'est Churchill qui le premier a théorisé l'idée (qui était déjà dans l'air) dans son fameux discours de Fulton, le 5 mars 1946.

  • 'relationship' plutôt que "relation"

Dans l'utilisation du terme «relationship» plutôt que «relation», que l'on trouve habituellement lorsqu'il s'agit de relations entre Etats, apparaissait bien ce qui précisément devait différencier cette alliance des autres, à savoir sa dimension affective et sentimentale, due aux affinités culturelles, historiques et idéologiques entre les deux pays, qui étaient censées la rendre unique.

La coopération diplomatique et militaire anglo-américaine n'était pas seulement fondée sur des intérêts communs, mais aussi sur le partage d'une langue, d'un passé, sur l'existence de liens familiaux anciens et récents - dont Churchill lui-même était un exemple, étant né d'une mère américaine.

Cette vision semblait conférer un
caractère naturel, automatique et donc inéluctable, à la relation spéciale.

La tentation est grande, surtout après coup et avec un regard français sur «les Anglo-Saxons», d'adhérer à cette idée.

Pourtant un examen attentif de l'histoire des relations entre les deux pays, comme l'a montré notamment David Reynolds, prouve qu'il n'en est rien.

Il a fallu les circonstances très particulières de 1940-1945 pour que la relation spéciale s'instaure,
non sans aléas et difficultés.

Jusque-là au contraire, ces relations avaient connu des aléas et dans deux périodes au moins avaient été plutôt tendues :

  • au XIXe siècle, puis
  • dans les années 1920 et 1930.

En effet, avant le second conflit mondial, Royaume-Uni et États-Unis avaient divergé sur des questions importantes, comme

  • l'isolationnisme de la politique étrangère américaine,
  • l'impérialisme britannique que critiquaient sévèrement les Américains et
  • la politique commerciale protectionniste (dite «préférence impériale») des gouvernements de Sa Majesté.

Tout indique d'ailleurs que celui qui était en 1946 leader de l'opposition conservatrice n'était pas dupe de sa propre rhétorique, et que le discours de Churchill était destiné à convaincre le public américain du danger soviétique et de la nécessité de consolider le partenariat atlantique, qui n'allait pas de soi alors.

Quoi qu'en dise Churchill, c'est donc bien dans l'existence d'intérêts nationaux convergents qu'il faut chercher l'origine de la relation spéciale.

Comme c'est souvent le cas des alliances inter-états, la présence d'un ennemi commun - ici de deux ennemis successifs,

  • l'Allemagne nazie et ses alliés d'abord, puis
  • l'Union soviétique et ses « alliés» du bloc communiste à partir de 1947

joue un rôle essentiel.

L'existence d'une coalition assez puissante pour résister à ce double mal fut à l'origine de la présence diplomatique, et surtout militaire, des États-Unis en Europe de l'Ouest.

Sans cette présence, il y a fort à parier que la relation spéciale entre les deux rives de l'Atlantique n'eut pas vu le jour.


Le deuxième mythe à interpeller les historiens est celui de la réalité, et de la durée, de cette relation privilégiée.

compenser le déclin de l'empire ?
S'agissait-il, comme l'affirme Max Beloff, d'un
fantasme né dans l'esprit des Britanniques - qui de tout temps ont bien plus souvent employé le terme que les Américains - pour se consoler d'avoir perdu leur empire et le rang de première puissance qu'ils détenaient jusqu'à la Première Guerre mondiale?

L'illusion d'une influence exercée sur Washington servait-elle à voiler la réalité de leur déclin historique ?

"If by special relationship you mean a relationship based on gratitude for what one or the other side has done in the 19th century or any time like that, or any nostalgia for the past, then we want - we seek no special relationship of that kind.

What we do seek, and what I think we hope to cement this week is a close relationship based on

  • identity of purpose,
  • identity of objectives and
  • a keen desire to do everything we can within the Alliance and more widely - the United Nations and elsewhere - to realise those objectives.

We have, it is well known, every one of my predecessors has said this, some of them,

Mr. Winston Churchill much more eloquently than I can ever hope to do we have of course clearly a common heritage in the rule of law, in our parliamentary institutions; we have fought side by side now in world wars,

but in looking to the problems of the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States,
we are not looking to the past, we are looking to the future, and I believe that the closeness of that relationship will be greater in the years to come; particularly on the lines we have been discussing this week than at any time in the history of our two countries.

Si de telles déclarations publiques ne sont
pas à prendre au pied de la lettre, cette mise au point a l'intérêt de montrer qu'en tout état de cause une 'close' relationship n'était pas nécessairement moins étroite aux yeux de Harold Wilson qu'une 'special' relationship...

d'après Michael Parsons, ed. Ophrys p.93-94., dont voir table des matières et conclusion
ici.

Anecdotes révélatrices

«It seems that Acheson found Eden's whole manner irritating and disliked the Englishman's tendency to address everyone as "dear" or "my dear"...

Acheson's fears of being accused of homosexuality may seem absurd to us but, at the time, McCarthyism was nearing its zenith and he had been one of the most frequent victims of attacks from the Republican right.

They hated him so much that they were looking for almost any÷thing to discredit him.

Acheson had survived because of Truman's faith in him, but he certainly did not want to give any new ammunition to his critics.

This, of course, points to another stumbling block to British American interpersonal relationships - cultural differences. Although Acheson certainly came from an elite background in the United States, it was still not the same as the public school education of Eden.

Acheson, of course, given his blunt and often scathing way of speaking, was perfectly able to irritate the British as well.

For all his elegant exterior, Acheson was as hard as nails...

It is interesting to observe that what irritated the Americans and the British most about each other was the extent to which individuals conformed to stereotypes: the languid and effeminate British aristocrat and the American "tough guy".

They seem to irritate each other most when they conform most to stereotypes pertaining to each nation.

Acheson was frequently criticized for being an anglophile, and he certainly appreciated many aspects of British life and culture.

But he wanted no Anglo-American
ruling duo.

He believed firmly - like other American policy makers- that the future of Great Britain, whose global role was declining, was in Europe, and he worked for European integration."

  • HAROLD WILSON'S DISCOURSE : ' LOOKING FORWARD... '

prononcé par Harold Wilson au cours du dîner du 7 décembre 1964 (rencontre à Washington avec Lyndon Baines Johnson).

Rejetant le concept de special relationship, qui selon lui s'appuyait sur une certaine nostalgie d'une grandeur impériale perdue, il proposa l'idée d'une
relation étroite entre les deux pays, fondée sur la convergence des objectifs et non plus sur le souvenir d'un passé révolu.

We hear arguments, I've heard this often enough, about whether there is a special relationship between the United States and Great Britain, some of those who talk about special relationship, I think, are looking backwards and not looking forward.

They talk about the nostalgia of our imperial age.

We regard our relationship with you not as a special relationship but as a close relationship, governed by the only things that matter, unity of purpose, and unity in our objectives.

We don't come to you at any time on the basis of our past grandeur or of any faded thoughts of what that grandeur was (...) we have, and we always shall have, a close relationship (...)

- Harold Wilson, The Labour Government 1964-7970,
Londres: in Weidenfeld & Nlcholson, 1971, p.50.

On serait tenté de voir dans une relation étroite un lien moins fort que dans une special relationship.

Il n'est pas sûr que ce soit le sens des propos du Premier ministre.

Wilson donna une conférence de presse deux jours plus tard, à la fin de son séjour à Washington, le 9 décembre 1964.

La plupart des questions portaient sur la Force multilatérale, mais l'un des journalistes lui demanda si la special relationship existait encore.

Dans sa réponse Wilson répéta que les relations anglo-américaines étaient désormais orientées vers le venir, et non plus tournées vers la passé, tout en estimant qu'elles étaient certainement appelées à devenir encore plus étroites à l'avenir, et non l'inverse.

On se rappellera qu'il s'agit de la transcription apparemment verbatim d'une réponse orale.

  • AND NOW SOME °memor(iz) able° QUOTES

The shorter ones :

Somewhere deep in every American heart lies a rebellion against the old parenthood of Europe. - D.H.Lawrence

I think that Americans tend to see things in black and white where we see shades of grey.
- Clement Attlee

The Kennedy-Macmillan days of the transatlantic partnership revived a relationship between the leaders of the two countries which was underpinned by a degree of personal friendship such had not existed since Roosevelt and Churchill forged the original bond.
- John Dickie (historian)

How am I ever going to get along with that cocky young Irishman ?
- Macmillan (before meeting the new president)

A little creep camping on my doorstep. -
Johnson (description of Wilson).

Long ones :

It is based on a broad congruence of outlook and interest on most security issues and on expectation on the part of both Britain and the United States that, on any issue of mutual concern, each government will have ample opportunity to make its views and preferences known to the other à and can generally expect to get a sympathetic hearing. - Williams and Schaub, 1995.

British attitudes towards the US follows fluctuating patterns (sic). Periods when American prestige is high are followed by lows generally occasioned by divergence of views over specific political or economic issues. Effect of disagreement is however aggravated by psychological intangibles stemming from fact that despite many similarities, we are two different peoples with different reactions, different modes of operation and at times transitory differences in interest despite long-term objectives are the same (sic). - Walter Gifford (US ambassador to London), 1952.

Although the term special relationship is often misused, there is a unique rapport between Britain and the United States.
British politicians and the military do not have the reserve in dealing with their American counterparts that they show elsewhere, and confidences are shared as a matter of course. -
John Major, 1999.

On a typical day the average Briton will breakfast on American cereal, like shredded wheat or cornflakes, made by Nabisco or Kellogg, perhaps washed down with a mug of Maxwell House coffee (part of General Foods) or a glass of American-produced Florida orange juice.
The British may be wearing blue jeans made by Wrangler or Levis Strauss.
The family car is likely to be American 'a Vauxhall or a Ford' and even the petrol could come from one of the three big American firms: Esso, Mobil and Texaco.

-Grayling and Langdon, 1988.

The idea that we have to choose between Europe and the US is a myth.
We are stronger with the US because we are in Europe, and a bridge between the two.
It is clear that Britain in Europe enjoys greater success in America and elsewhere than Britain apart from Europe ever would.

Today Britain is the leading destination of inward investment from America, as well as Asia, to Europe.
This generated 55,000 jobs in Britain last year alone.
Only a dogmatist would claim that overseas investment comes to Britain in spite of Europe rather than because of it.
American investors are not telling us to come and join NAFTA.
Investors are telling us they invest in Britain in part to get access to the world's largest market.

- Blair and Brown in The Independent, 1999. (NAFTA : North American Free Trade Agreement)

Special relation thanks to the concours-anglais list gang :
Eve, Ann-Chris, Seb, Jé, Fa
y, Fred, Flor and many others.
Add
your own contribution!

.

SPE.REL ~ TIME WHEEL
an exhaustive timeline is available on Fayçal Titah's site

NB : pour les concours, éviter le piège de l'accumulation de connaissances et d'anecdotique au détriment de la méthodologie. Voir les section Dissertation et commentaire de civilisation

---

1943


August
The Quebec Agreement (governing nuclear collaboration between the authorities of the U.S.A. and U.K )


excepts


1944

July
BRETTON WOODS AGREEMENT
A currency agreement which set fixed exchange rates for major currencies, provided for central bank intervention in currency markets, and set the price of gold at US$35 per ounce.

The agreement controlled currency relationships for nearly 30 years.

more


September
HYDE PARK AGREEMENT
Roosevelt/Churchill, on sharing postwar development of nuclear weapons.

At the urging of Prime Minister Churchill, FDR and Churchill sign a secret memorandum that "the world" is not to be told of the atomic bomb before its use and steps should be taken to see that there is no leakage of information from Professor Bohr "particularly to the Russians".

Full collaboration between the two countries "for military and commercial purposes" will continue after the defeat of Japan. (32)

[To the dismay of the British, President Truman would simply abrogate the agreement for joint authority for nuclear weapons and claim that no copy of such an accord could be found. The 1946 McMahon Act which he signed barred the US from sharing atomic secrets with any country, even the United Kingdom which had initiated the research. (33)]

source

1945

February

THE YALTA CONFERENCE
Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt discussed Europeâs postwar reorganization

April
Roosevelt dies.
Truman becomes president (1945 ÷ 1953 )
US Secretary of State : James Byrnes (1945 ÷ 1947 )
GB Prime Minister : Clement Attlee (1945 ÷ 1951 )
GB Foreign secretary : Ernest Bevin (1945 ÷ 1951 )

July
Attlee becomes Prime minister

July ÷ August
POTSDAM CONFERENCE

Meeting of the principal qllies in World War II (United States, USSR and Great Britain) to clarify and implement agreements previously reached at the Yalta Conference.

The chief representatives were President Truman, Premier Stalin, Prime Minister Churchill, and, after Churchill's defeat in the British elections, Prime Minister Attlee.


see source


August
End of LEND LEASE.


more


December
Britain secures a loan from the US :

The United States loans Great Britain $3.75 billion.
In March, 1946 when told that the French government of Léon Blum was on the verge of being replaced by a Communist one, the United States averted this catastrophe by a loan of $1.3 billion and a write-off of $2.7 billion of war debts.

source

1946

March
Winston S. Churchill's "Iron Curtain Speech"

Church introduced the phrase "Iron Curtain" to describe the division between Western powers and the area controlled by the Soviet Union.

As such the speech marks the onset of the Cold War.

Excerpts

January

First session of the United Nations General Assembly takes place.

It replaced the failed League of Nations. The number of international concerns was daunting.

Britain had problems in Palestine.

Too many Jews wanted to go there and the Arabs were anxious. Britain banned more Jews from going to Palestine this angered the Americans.

They demanded 100,000 Jews should be allowed into Palestine.

The British withdrew their embassy staff

source

August
McMAHON ACT

The McMahon Bill (December 20,1945) becomes law on Aug. 1 1946 (Atomic Energy Act of 1946)

US legislature limited release of nuclear information to foreign powers (Prime Minister Harold Macmillanâs efforts later resulted in the selective repeal in 1958 of the McMahon Act)

1947


George Marshall is US Secretary of State (1947 ÷ 1949 )

March 12
The "TRUMAN DOCTRINE", outlined in a presidential speech to Congress, makes it U.S. policy to protect nations threatened by communism.


source


It will be referred to as the "doctrine of containment"

THE MARSHALL PLAN

The Marshall Plan (April 2) Famous speech given by Marshall in Harvard on June 5.

ãthe plan laid the foundation for the Anglo-American "special relationshipä.

The plan also changed the attitude toward the United States of the British moderate left, which had, with the end of the war, come to regard the United States as a hard, self-interested capitalist power.

Although the nuclear brinkmanship of President Eisenhower's secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, created strains, the right and center of the Labour Party and the entire Conservative Party, except for a chauvinist fringe, were instinctively pro-American for the rest of their political lives.ä

ãThe downside was that Britain became less amenable to its real status: an elder and maybe most-favored child, but not a liberated mother. It was a recipient, not a donor, yet it tried to behave as though the reverse were true.

There was a mixture of the splendid and the ridiculous in the British attitude. London led Europe in responding to Marshall's speech, yet, having led the continent, the British government sought to detach itself from the rest. This was a remarkable and depressing precursor of Britain's relationship with Europe in subsequent decades.ä


source

more info


DOSSIER


LE PLAN MARSHALL
in French

G.B : secret decision to launch an atomic bomb project for political reasons.

Source
: NATO


PALESTINE :

Because both Palestine and Transjordan were British Mandate territories during this period, the Colonial Office actually administered these lands.

However, Palestineâs unique status as a holy land for three major religions and the creation of a Jewish homeland within an Arab population affected British relations with not only much of the Arab world and Jewish communities worldwide but also many Western governments, especially the United States.

The administrative policies of the British government in Palestine affected British relations with many countries and influential groups in Europe and America. For example, the number of Jews allowed to legally immigrate to Palestine each year was fraught with foreign policy issues.

The Arab states and populations opposed any Jewish immigration, while Zionist groups demanded large-scale immigration

With the end of the war and the election of the Attlee Labour government in Britain, Zionist hopes for a new policy were again frustrated, and Jewish terrorist attacks escalated. Support for a militant Zionism came from abroad, especially from Americans who contributed both money and pressure on their political leadership to liberalize Jewish immigration to Palestine.

Caught between Arab and Jewish demands and short on funds, the Attlee government in early 1947 transfers the British mandate over to the United Nations.

source

May
the USA take over GB in Greece and Turkey

ãGreat Britain finds itself under the necessity of reducing or liquidating its commitments in several parts of the world, including Greeceä,

ãThe very existence of the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by Communists, who defy the government's authority at a number of pointsä
(Truman)

source

1948

Committee of European Economic Cooperation (CEEC) is created

THE BERLIN BLOCKADE : June 1948-May 1949

THE BERLIN AIRLIFT : American perspective.


see here


In reply to the Berlin blockade by Moscow, London accepts the stationing of American B-29 bombers capable of carrying atomic bombs on British soil and even that the final use of these weapons would not be subject to a British veto. (Richard Davis)

The first United Nations peace keeping force was formed to cope with the situation in Palestine. It would be the longest UN peace-keeping operation of all - it remains there.

The Soviet Union blocked off Berlin and American and British pilots began the Berlin Airlift flying in medical supplies and foodstuffs.

source

Israel declares itself a nation.

Truman recognizes Israel 16 mn after its proclamation (May 14).

British evacuation of Israel.

1949

Dean Acheson US secretary of state (1949 -1953 )

May, 12
End of the Soviet blockade of Berlin after failure.

In Britain, the dockers went on strike and, the Government was forced to devalue the £.

NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed. Its first Secretary General, Lord Ismay, famously remarked that NATO's European purpose was to keep the Americans in, keep the Russians out and keep the Germans down.

Much of the credit for bringing the Americans on board the NATO idea was due to Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Secretary.

source

August
First USSR atomic bomb.

The USSR establishes the German Democratic Republic (Oct.)

Creation of the Council of Europe (France, Great Britain and the Benelux countries) Denmark, Ireland, Italy Norway and Switzerland to help them prepare the statute of such Council.

The Republic of Ireland leaves the Commonwealth

1950

KOREAN WAR :

In 1950 the North Korean communists marched into South Korea. Britain, America and the UN stepped in to help the South Korean capitalists. The Russians stepped in on the North Korean side.

Meanwhile in Britain there was an election. The Labour Party scraped back in.

In 1950 Robert Schuman, the French foreign minister, presented what became known as the Schuman Plan for a European Coal and Steel Community. Britain declined to join in 1950.

source

THE TRUMAN /ATTLEE ãUNDERSTANDINGä :

They disagreed on two issues - recognition of Communist China and control of atomic weapons.

Great Britain supported recognizing Red China and admitting the country to the United Nations, which the United States continued to oppose.

Truman vetoed the suggestion that the United States turn control of when to use the atom bomb to the United Nations.

The two countries reached "complete agreement" that all NATO countries should immediately beef up their military strength to resist communist aggression.


see here


1951 :

W.Churchill elected Prime minister (1951 ÷ 1955 )

GB Foreign Secretary : Anthony Eden (1951 ÷ 1955 )

European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) with 6 countries (Belgium,

Federal Republic of Germany (former West Germany), France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.)

The executive machinery of the ECSC provided an important precedent for the future growth of a united
Europe.

info


May
Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh passes a bill to nationalize the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company

1952


Churchill's (the Conservative prime Minister) priorities lay in America, Korea, Malaya and soon Egypt. He was a less interested in the situation at home.

This was the period when Britain was becoming a nuclear weapons power and therefore the so-called special relationship with the USA, as important as ever.

source

October
"Britain tests an atomic (nuclear fission) bomb developed by her physicists October 2 over the Monte Bello Islands near Australia. She joins the United States and the U.S.S.R. as a nuclear power."

see


November :


The United States detonates the first hydrogen bomb.

The explosion is 500 times more powerful than the bomb exploded at Nagasaki.

info

1953

Dwight D.Eisenhower elected president (1953 ÷ 1961)

US Secretary of State : John Foster Dulles (1953 ÷ 1959 )

In Russia Stalin died and Malenkov took over although the real power would be assumed by Nikita Khrushchev.

Churchill felt this was an opportunity to better East/West relations and wanted a summit meeting between Britain America and the USSR leaders. America was not so sure.


source


IRAN : A CIA coup overthrows the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and re-installs Reza Pahlavi as Shah of Iran.

Over 300 people are killed and many hundreds are wounded in the nine hours of fighting. [Plans had been brewing to oust the nationalist Mossadegh ever since he and his party had passed a bill in 1951 to nationalize the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

The coup, however, was increasingly proclaimed in the years following as essential to prevent "the obvious threat of Russian takeover".


source



1954

Gradual removal of the restrictions imposed by the McMahon Act (from 1954 to 1958 )

July
British decision to make an "H"ydrogen - Bomb

In 1954 Churchill continued to try and bring Russia and America to the negotiating table with little success.

He calls a meeting in Moscow without consulting his Cabinet.

The Cabinet had had enough of Churchill making decisions without them.

The government looked in danger of collapse and Eden badgered Churchill to resign and nominate him (Eden) as successor.

Nasser became Prime Minister of Egypt in 1954.
He wanted the British to withdraw from the Suez Canal Zone.

They signed an agreement undertaking to withdraw by 1956.

source


1955


April
Anthony Eden becomes PM after Churchillâs resignation ( 1955 ÷ 1956 )

GB Foreign Secretary : (april ÷ december 1955 )


1956

THE SUEZ CRISIS

In 1956 Egypt's President Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. America and Britain had refused his demands for money to build the High Dam.

The Americans at least believed that Egypt's closeness to the USSR made such a request impossible. But the Americans were not willing to go to war over the canal; the British Prime Minister, Anthony Eden was. So was France.

The Israelis were keen to attack Egypt from the East. Although Eden's own Cabinet was not entirely behind him (nor too were the chiefs of staff) Eden ordered the assault on the canal zone. The USA proposed a UN cease-fire. Britain and France accepted.

The Suez Crisis demonstrated the danger of a Prime Minister obsessed and also the weakness of the transatlantic special relationship.

It was an illusion.
Eden, was in poor health and Suez led to his resignation and his replacement by Harold Macmillan.

source

info in French


1957

First testing of the British "H" Bomb (May 15)

Harold Macmillan became Prime Minister ( 1957 ÷ 1963 ).
He had four issues before him: Ireland, Cyprus, relations with the United States after Suez; the economy.

In mid 1957 there was a run on sterling. The government put interest rates up. Inflation was under control but unemployment, already high, would suffer because of it.

This was the year Macmillan agreed with America that in return for Thor guided missiles Britain would give the Americans bases in the United Kingdom. This too was the beginning of Britain's nuclear defence policy.


source


March
Treaty of Rome : European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Community (Euratom)

DECLARATION OF COMMON PURPOSE

meeting between the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to record the view that there should be close and fruitful collaboration of scientists and engineers in defence research and development.


source

1958

US/UK MUTUAL DEFENCE AGREEMENT

info

Britain agreed to have American nuclear missile bases in the United Kingdom.

Although the majority of the population appeared indifferent or did not understand the arrangement with the US, there was an emerging anti-nuclear mood.

It was in this atmosphere that in 1958, CND, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament started. It was too the year that Life Peers were created for the first time.


source



1959

It was during 1959, that arrangements were made for an alternative to membership of the EEC.

It was called EFTA, the European Freed Trade Association and would come into being the following year (1960). EEC members saw this as a direct threat to European commercial and political harmony.

source


1960

GB Foreign Secretary : Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1960 ÷ 1963)

Macmillan went to Cape Town and made his famous Wind of Change speech which warned all those (including some of his own Party) who resisted the end of colonial rule, that the time had come when people throughout the world, especially in Africa, should be helped towards independence.

source

Kennedy signed an agreement with Britain to base American Polaris missile submarines in Scotland - a nuclear stone's throw from the Soviet Union

source

January
The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) convention, regrouping Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom is signed in Stockholm, Sweden.


1961

US President : John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1961 ÷ 1963)

US Secretary of state : Dean Rusk (1961 ÷ 1969)

1962 -1963

THE AFTERMATH OF THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

The Cuban missile crisis marked the point at which the Cold War began to thaw. Both sides had peered over the precipice of nuclear war and wisely decided to retreat.

Khrushchev eventually accepted the status quo in West Berlin, and the predicted conflict there never materialized.

The thaw also led to the signing of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963 by Britain, the United States, and the USSR.

The treaty outlawed nuclear test explosions in the atmosphere or underwater, but allowed them underground.

source

NASSAU AGREEMENT

Treaty signed on 18 December 1962 whereby the USA provided Britain with Polaris missiles, marking a strengthening in Anglo-American relations.


1963


US President : Lyndon B Johnson : (1963 ÷ 1969)

October
GB Prime minister : Alec Douglas-Home (1963 ÷ 1964) after McMillanâs resignation

Opposition of De Gaulle to the membership of GB to the European Community (Feb. 14)

Test Ban Treaty is signed between Britain, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. (Aug. 5)


info



POLARIS SALES AGREEMENT


source



1964

January 7
London announces that it is providing Cuba with credit to buy 400 British buses (antagonising Johnson)

October
Harold Wilson becomes PM (1964 ÷ 1970)


1965


March 8-9
The first American combat troops arrive in Vietnam


info


H. Wilson refuses to send British troops to Vietnam :

ãOver Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson put increasing pressure on Wilson to provide a British contingent - which he resisted. But he also had to maintain the posture, which was costly window dressing, of a significant British defence presence east of Suezä


more




1967

GB : THE DEVALUATION OF THE POUND in 1967 virtually destroyed what was left of the economic strategy.

In November sterling fell to $2.40 and a badly shaken prime minister made an inept television address to the nation, arguing that the "pound in your pocket" was unaffected - an extraordinary reversal of the euphoric days of 1964-1966.

info

GB : second EEC application, but vetoed once again by De Gaulle :

President Charles De Gaulle :

ãCompared with the motives that led the Six to organize their unit, we understand for what reasons, why Britain-who is not continental, who remains, because of the Commonwealth and because she is an island, committed far beyond the seas, who is tied to the United States by all kinds of special agreements-did not merge into a Community with set dimensions and strict rules.

While this Community was taking shape, Britain therefore first refused to participate in It and even took toward it a hostile attitude as if she saw in It an economic and political threat.

Then she tried to negotiate in order to join the Community, but in such conditions that the latter would have been suffocated by this membership. The attempt having failed, the British Government then asserted that it no longer wanted to enter the Community and set about strengthening its ties with the Commonwealth and with other European countries grouped around it in a free-trade areaä

ãConsidering the special relations that tic the British to America, with the advantage and also the dependence that results for them; considering the existence of the Commonwealth and their preferential relations with it;
considering the special commitment that they still have in various parts of the world and which, basically, distinguishes them from the continentals, we see that the policy of the latter, as soon as they have one, would undoubtedly concur, in certain cases, with the policy of the former.

But we cannot see how both policies could merge, unless the British assumed again, particularly as regards defense, complete command of themselves, or else if the continentals renounced forever a European Europe.ä

more


1968

British demonstrations against the Vietnam War

Wilson tells the House of Commons that British forces would be withdrawn from the East of Suez by the end of 1971. (Jan. 16)

Nuclear Anti-Proliferation TREATY : recognized by many countries including the Soviet Union.

The NPT barred acquisition of nuclear weapons by non nuclear states and forbade nuclear states to export their capabilities to other nations.


source


1969


Richard Nixon US President (1969 ÷ 1974)

Henry Kissinger (national security adviser) (1969 -1973) dominated the making of US foreign policy during the Nixon Presidency.

Nixon recalled in his memoirs:

"From the outset of my administration, . . . I planned to direct foreign policy from the White House. Therefore I regarded my choice of a National Security Adviser as crucial."

more


1970

GB : Edward Heath (C) becomes P.M. (1970-1974)

The relationship between GB and US deteriorates :

ãEdward Heath, one of the only two prime ministers to break the post-war mould, cared little about public reaction as he studiously worked to show that Washington was second to Europeä

source

1973

Henry Kissinger becomes secretary of State (1973-1977)

In 1973 all the talk was of joining the European Community and what it would mean for Britain. Most people believed it was a purely commercial venture that would enhance opportunities for industry.

Edward Heath wanted it to go much further than that.

The British people were Europeans only on paper.


source


January
GB becomes a member of the European Community (with Ireland and Denmark)

ãMr Heath believed that enthusiasm for the market existed predominantly among the young. Elsewhere he detected no more than good old British pragmatism. He had been impressed by people he had met who did not expect immediate benefit for themselves but looked forward to a better life for their children and grandchildren.ä


source


Kissinger's appeal for that year to be called "The Year of Europe":

ãNeither we nor the French were amused by this intervention, nor were our other European colleagues as they got to hear about.

When I next saw Henry, I enquired whether he really thought it was the responsibility of the Americans to organise a Year of Europe.

For Henry Kissinger to announce a year of Europe without consulting any of us was rather like my standing between the lions in Trafalgar Square and announcing that we were embarking on a year to save America ã (Edward Heath)


1974


Harold Wilson (L) Prime Minister. (1974-1976)

James Callaghan, Foreign Secretary (1974-1976)

Denis Healey, chancellor of the Exchequer (1974-1979)

Gerald Ford (R) becomes President (1974-1977) after Nixon resignation on August 9, 1974 (Watergate Scandal)

1975

In 1975 Margaret Thatcher replaced Ted Heath as leader of the Conservative Party.

THE COUNTRY VOTED TO STAY IN THE COMMON MARKET. Although 67% of those who went to the polling stations voted Yes to the EEC membership, it is doubtful that many knew the deeper implications of the Treaty of Rome.

source

The US withdraws from Vietnam

1976

James Callaghan Prime Minister (1976-1979) after Wilsonâs resignation

US UK relationship improves

1977

Jimmy Carter President (D) (1977-1981)
Cyrus Vance, secretary of State (1977-1980)

1978

President Carter, by Executive Order in 1978, ordered that all research into the Neutron Bomb was to be suspended.

1979

Margaret Thatcher (C) becomes Prime Minister (1979-1990)
Lord Carrington, Foreign Secretary (1979-1982)

1980

Trident Sales Agreement US -UK (
http://www.cnduk.org/briefing/snm.htm )

Mrs Thatcher achieved a reduction in British payments into the European Community.


source



1981


Ronald Reagan, President (R) (1981-1989)

Alexander Haig, secretary of State (1981-1982)

1982

Margaret Thatcher announces the governmentâs decision to buy trident II American missiles

FALKLANDS WAR

ãMargaret Thatcher would have lost the Falklands war in 1982 if America had failed to provide crucial missiles to bolster British air defences, according to an adviser to the former prime minister.

America, which angered the Thatcher government with its initially even-handed approach to the conflict, was believed to have provided little more than intelligence once Washington lost patience with the Argentinians.
But British and American officials say in the BBC documentary that Washington provided the latest Sidewinder missiles at 48 hours' notice after the British task force came under fire.ä

source

ãTHE EVIL EMPIREä

President Reagan's Speech to the House of Commons, June 8, 1982, in which he calls the Soviet system the "Evil Empire" the speech :

source

1983

Sir Geoffrey Howe, GB foreign Secretary (1983 ÷ 1989)

In Washington, President Reagan announced his STRATEGIC DEFENSE INITIATIVE - the idea for some futuristic missile defence system. It was quickly dubbed: STAR WARS. It may have been a fantastic concept, with many critics, but by trying to match it, the Soviet Union only added to its debts and inevitable bankruptcy.


source


US INVASION OF GRENADA

October 25. Britain's "special relationship" with the United States was put under strain when US Marines invaded the Commonwealth island of Grenada. Britain had been given no advance warning of the invasion which followed a Cuban-backed coup on October 12 in which the prime minister, Maurice Bishop, and his Cabinet were slaughtered.

source


1984

January : The US deploys cruise missiles in Britain

April 1
Anti-nuclear campaigners formed a 14-mile human chain around the American cruise-missile base at Greenham Common. The base had become a focus for protest ever since the United States and the Thatcher government agreed to station the missiles in the UK.


source


1985

Reaganâs second presidency

1986

Apr. 14-15
RAID ON LIBYA (with the use of bases in Britain)

In Britain, Prime Minister Thatcher was roundly criticized for going against the advice of her cabinet and supporting the American strike.

In the House of Commons she stood firm - like a "lioness in a den of Daniels," said the London Times -- against shouts of disapproval from opposition members. The Iron Lady felt she owed Reagan for U.S. support during the Falklands War, and she knew Gaddafi was giving aid to the IRA.


source


THE WESTLAND AFFAIR

the Westland affair almost brought down the Thatcher government in 1986.

Italy was involved then, too, as the government's preferred bidder for Westland was the US/Italian Sikorsky-Fiat consortium, rather than the European consortium involving British Aerospace that Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine was trying to put together.

The split within the Cabinet resulted in the resignations of Heseltine and Leon Brittan, Trade and Industry Secretary, who went on to become Deputy Head of the European Commission and got his revenge on his former sponsor (Thatcher) by pushing forward European integration -

source

The confrontation between Thatcher and Heseltine on what should be done, led to the dramatic resignation in the January 1986.

From this point, the Thatcher Cabinet was split between a generally sceptical group and a small number loyal to the PM.


source


1987

Reagan/Gorbatchev signed the INF Treaty (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force)

1988

In September 1988, PM, Margaret Thatcher, set a bench mark by which her policy on Europe would be longed judged.

This was her BRUGES SPEECH. In it, she made the memorable statement: "We have not succeeded in rolling back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to be seen them reimposed at a European level."

With these words, Thatcher fanned the cause of what was to be the credo of the Euro-sceptic.

Her target was the central authority as advocated by the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors.


source


1989

Douglas Hurd, GB Foreign secretary (1989-1995)

George W. Bush President (1989 ÷ 1993)

Fall of Berlin Wall

1990

October
John Major, PM, Conservative, after the resignation of Margaret Thatcher.

NOTA
La démission de Margaret Thatcher est le dernier événement de la question officielle 'SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP' - "la période délimitée par l'arrivée à la présidence de Truman (avril 1945) et le retrait de Mrs Thatcher (novembre 1990)"

ch

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