Britain as a Junior Partner

Abstract

According to Alistair Horne, Macmillan’s official biographer, the new Premier was anxious for a meeting with the President, but refused to beg for one. The initiative was Eisenhower’s, who in a private communication of 22 January 1957, suggested Bermuda in March as a meeting place. Horne, however, neglects to mention that Eisenhower’s invitation was induced by a lot of prodding from Macmillan. As early as 19 November 1956, during the height of the Suez crisis, Macmillan saw Aldrich at his own request. Following the conversation, Aldrich reported home that: ‘Macmillan is desperately anxious to see the President at earliest possible opportunity …’. When learning that Dulles would attend the NATO meeting in December 1956, the Foreign Office took the occasion to push for meetings between him and Macmillan, and between Macmillan and Humphrey, in order to completely review Anglo-American relations over NATO and the Middle East. The combined weight of the British entreaties was sufficient to entice an invitation from Eisenhower, of which Macmillan duly informed the Cabinet on 29 January 1957. British pleading was not the only motive behind the invitation. Eisenhower was, of course, concerned about the serious break in Anglo-American relations following the Suez crisis.