1959: Mac, Ike, and Mr. K.

Abstract

On 27 January 1959, Harold Macmillan wrote Dwight Eisenhower a rather petulant letter, complaining about a decision to award a turbine contract for an American dam project to an American rather than a British firm. What is most remarkable about this letter is the almost apocalyptic language the prime minister used to voice his displeasure: “What really worries me about this turbine contract is the injury that so small a thing can do to the cause that you and I have so much at heart of Anglo-American co-operation and understanding and the liberalism and interdependence with which your name will always be associated.”¹ Such was the power of the Cold War paradigm in 1959 that it could turn what should have been a routine matter into a rhetorical ploy by Macmillan to try to wheedle a contract out of his good friend.²