‘I don’t think we are in for a very happy four days’

Abstract

In January 1963, Hugh Gaitskell died, suddenly and unexpectedly. President Kennedy had formed a high opinion of Gaitskell, not least because of the battles he had fought within the Labour Party against further nationalisation and unilateral nuclear disarmament. His successor, Harold Wilson, had no such reputation. He came from the left of the party. He had been a frequent visitor to the Soviet Union. His position on many of the issues appeared to the Americans, as it did to others, unclear — which was precisely what had helped him to get elected. On winning the leadership he declared himself a supporter of a Western nuclear deterrent, while stating that British nuclear weapons added nothing to the West’s defences. Wilson was eager to portray himself as a British Kennedy, but he was not regarded by the Americans in those terms.