‘This frightful tangle of fear and suspicion’

Abstract

Following de Gaulle’s veto of the British application to join the EEC, Macmillan’s problems were compounded by the Profumo affair. The US Ambassador in London, David Bruce, kept Kennedy entertained with salacious details of the affair, but warned the President that Macmillan’s admission that he did not know what was going on at critical times was ‘pitiable and extremely damaging’. He had given the impression that he did not know how to exercise responsibility in a case about which nearly everyone in Parliament appeared better informed. Bruce concluded that the Prime Minister was mortally wounded. In his opinion, no moves would be made to replace Macmillan before President Kennedy’s visit, planned for the end of June. But Macmillan’s replacement could not be long delayed as he had become an electoral liability.¹