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Diplomas and Diplomacy pp 1–7Cite as

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The Special Relationship

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Abstract

In a small city in the middle of the country, over 3000 people woke up early one Saturday morning for the event of the season. Some had lined up the night before to get a good seat. The town had cleared out an old train station, festooned it with flags and royal streamers, and packed its tables with sumptuous spreads of Britain’s finest teas, biscuits, and cakes. The sartorial ensembles were striking. The women resplendent in white gloves, pearls, and extravagant hats of all colors, shapes, and sizes, with the occasional tiara. The Guardian, one of Britain’s major national newspapers, reported on the “frenzied and frenetic” local anticipation of the big day: 29 April 2011—“The Royal Wedding” of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    1. “Union Station Garners Huge Attendance and National Attention for Royal Wedding Watch Party and Princess Diana Exhibition” [Press Release], Union Station Kansas City, 3 May 2011, Accessed November 2013, Available: http://www.uskc.kctechworks.com/pdf/Royal_Wedding_Watch_Party_2011May6.pdf; “Community Faces | Royal Wedding Watch Party & Diana Exhibit at Union Station” [Online Picture Gallery], The Kansas City Star, Accessed August 2014, Available: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article294282/Community-Faces-Royal-Wedding-Watch-Party-Diana-Exhibit-at-Union-Station.html; Paul Harris, “Royal Wedding: Deep in America’s Heartland, the British Royals Hold an Enduring Fascination,” The Guardian, 16 April 2011, Accessed October 2013, Available: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/17/royal-wedding-missouri-diana-exhibition.

  2. 2.

    2. Harris, “Royal Wedding.”

  3. 3.

    3. “New York Times/CBS News Poll,” The New York Times and CBS News, 15-20 April 2011, Accessed February 2014 – Available: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/apr11-royals-poll.pdf?ref=europe; “Presidential Approval Ratings – Barack Obama,” Gallup, Accessed August 2014, Available: http://www.gallup.com/poll/116479/barack-obama-presidential-job-approval.aspx.

  4. 4.

    4. The US and UK were formal allies in the Second Samoan War (1898-1899) and the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901).

  5. 5.

    5. Watt was also a commissioner of the Marshall Scholarship from 1977 until his tragic death in 1987. David Watt, “Introduction,” in Wm. Roger Louis and Hedley Bull, eds., The Special Relationship: Anglo-American Relations Since 1945, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986, p. 2.

  6. 6.

    6. David Reynolds, “The Wartime Anglo-American Alliance,” in Louis and Bull, The Special Relationship, pp. 38-9.

  7. 7.

    7. Churchill arrived (by sea) at the White House on 22 December 1941 and departed (by air) on 14 January 1942. “Franklin D. Roosevelt: Day by Day,” The Pare Lorentz Center at the FDR Presidential Library, Accessed July 2014, Available: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/daybyday/daylog/december-22nd-1941/.

  8. 8.

    8. Lend–Lease began in 1941 and signaled the end to US neutrality by freely supplying American war materiel to the Allies. However, once the war ended, Britain relied on it for imports. See: Richard Gardner, Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy in Current Perspective, New York, NY: Columbia University Press (1980 version), pp. 184–6.

  9. 9.

    9. The Act of Congress was known as the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (also known as the McMahon Act). Watt, “Introduction,” p. 5; Margaret Gowing, “Nuclear Weapons and the Special Relationship,” in Louis and Bull, The Special Relationship, pp. 117–28. It also bears note that the sterling convertibility and trade liberalization conditions tied to American financial assistance following the war were consistent with the American position during the war. The Atlantic Charter, Lend-Lease, and Bretton Woods all signaled American efforts to lower Britain’s trade barriers and move beyond the system of imperial preference. See: Ikenberry, Liberal Leviathan, pp. 194–7.

  10. 10.

    10. Prime Minister Harold MacMillan famously analogized this relationship to the Greco-Roman partnership.

  11. 11.

    11. Watt, “Introduction,” p. 7.

  12. 12.

    12. Ernest R. May and Gregory F. Treverton, “Defence Relationships: American Perspectives,” in Louis and Bull, The Special Relationship, p. 181.

  13. 13.

    13. Alistair Horne, “The MacMillan Years and Afterwards,” in Louis and Bull,The Special Relationship, p. 89.

  14. 14.

    14. Dwight D. Eisenhower to Winston Churchill, State Department, Presidential Correspondence, Lot 66 D 204 (Eisenhower Correspondence with Churchill), No. 1258, 20 December 1953, Accessed August 2014, Available: http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v09p2/d1258.

  15. 15.

    15. Eisenhower to Churchill, 20 December 1953.

  16. 16.

    16. Melvyn Leffler, “The American Conception of National Security and the Beginnings of the Cold War, 1945-1948,” in G. John Ikenberry, ed., American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays, 6th ed., Boston: Wadsworth, 2011, p. 84.

  17. 17.

    17. In his speech outlining ERP in 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall noted that without economic health in the world, “there can be no political stability and no assured peace.” George Catlett Marshall, “Commencement Address,” Harvard University, 4 June 1947, Reprinted online, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Accessed 15 July 2014, Available: http://www.oecd.org/general/themarshallplanspeechatharvarduniversity 5june1947.htm. See also: G. John Ikenberry, Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012, p 188, 199; John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History, New York: Penguin, 2005, pp. 31-2.

  18. 18.

    18. Foreign aid has continued after the Marshall Plan in various forms, the earliest and most significant of which was the Mutual Security Act, signed by President Truman in October 1951. This lasted ten years and provided security, economic, and technical aid. In 1961, US foreign aid (civilian aid) planning and dispersion to developing areas of the world was centralized in the Foreign Assistance Act, which created the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

  19. 19.

    19. Marshall, “Hearings before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Eightieth Congress, Second Session, On United States Assistance to European Economic Recovery,” Reprinted online, The George C. Marshall Foundation, Accessed 14 January 2015, Available: http://marshallfoundation.org/library/digital-archive/european-recovery-program/.

  20. 20.

    20. The British government also rationed certain commodities during the First World War.

  21. 21.

    21. Watt, “Introduction,” p. 10.

  22. 22.

    22. This line was eventually struck from the draft, but it is informative of the attitudes in the Foreign Office at the time. Draft White Paper, The National Archives, FO 924/1028, 1953.

References

  1. Harris, Paul. 2011. Royal wedding: deep in America’s heartland, the British royals hold an enduring fascination. The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/17/royal-wedding-missouri-diana-exhibition. Accessed Oct 2013.

  2. Community Faces|Royal wedding watch party & Diana exhibit at Union Station [Online Picture Gallery]. The Kansas City Star. http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article294282/Community-Faces--Royal-Wedding-Watch-Party--Diana-Exhibit-at-Union-Station.html. Accessed Aug 2014.

  3. New York Times/CBS News Poll. 2011. The New York Times and CBS News. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/apr11-royals-poll.pdf?ref=europe. Accessed Feb 2014.

  4. Watt, David. 1986. Introduction. In The special relationship: Anglo-American relations since 1945, eds. Wm. Roger Louis and Hedley Bull, 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

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  5. Reynolds, David. 1986. The wartime Anglo-American alliance. In The special relationship, ed. Wm. Roger Louis and Hedley Bull, 38–39. Oxford: Clarendon.

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  6. Gardner, Richard. 1980. Sterling-dollar diplomacy in current perspective, 184–186. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Gowing, Margaret. 1986. Nuclear weapons and the special relationship. In The special relationship, ed. Wm. Roger Louis and Hedley Bull, 117–128. Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  8. May, Ernest R. and Gregory F. Treverton. 1986. Defence relationships: American perspectives. In The special relationship, eds. Wm. Roger Louis and Hedley Bull, 181. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Alistair, Horne. 1986. The MacMillan years and afterwards. In The special relationship. eds. Wm. Roger Louis and Hedley Bull, 89. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Melvyn, Leffler. 2011. The American Conception of National Security and the beginnings of the Cold War, 1945–1948. In American foreign policy: Theoretical essays, 6th ed. ed. G. John Ikenberry, 84. Boston: Wadsworth.

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  11. Ikenberry, G. John. 2012. Liberal leviathan: The origins, crisis, and transformation of the American World Order. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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  12. Gaddis, John Lewis. 2005. The Cold War: A new history, 31–32. New York: Penguin.

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    Aroop Mukharji

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Mukharji, A. (2016). The Special Relationship. In: Diplomas and Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58653-7_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58653-7_1

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