‘Commonwealth or Europe?’: Macmillan’s Dilemma, 1961–63

Abstract

Speaking at the West Point Military Academy on 5 December 1962, Dean Acheson famously asserted: Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role. The attempt to play a separate power role — that is, a role apart from Europe, a role based on a ‘special relationship’ with the United States, a role based on being the head of a ‘Commonwealth’ which has no political structure, or unity, or strength, and enjoys a fragile and precarious economic relationship by means of the sterling area and preferences in the British market — this role is about played out.1