Harold Macmillan and the "Golden Days" of Anglo-American Relations Revisited, 1957-63

Abstract

Historians of Anglo-American relations have for the most part had little difficulty in characterizing the premiership of Harold Macmillan between January 1957 and October 1963 as an era of renewed closeness between London and Washington.2 In one sense this is no surprise. Sandwiched between the disastrous Anglo-American breach over the 1956 Suez crisis and the deterioration in relations during the mid-1960s prompted by a combination of the Vietnam War, the British financial crisis, and London's abandonment of its defense role east of Suez, the Macmillan era was almost bound to appear rosy in comparison. Robert Hathaway, in his survey of Anglo-American relations since the Second World War, describes the Macmillan years as being those of an “alliance sustained,” sandwiched in between the eras of an “alliance threatened” during the Suez crisis and an “alliance depreciated” under Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. For John Dumbrell, in his recent survey, A Special Relationship, the most appropriate starting point for a study of Anglo-American relations in the Cold War and after is “the house that Jack and Mac built.” Macmillan's official biographer, Alistair Horne, puts matters even more straightforwardly. These were the years of what was quite simply “a very special relationship.” Even John Dickie, in his otherwise skeptical survey of Anglo-American relations, Special No More, titles his chapter on the Macmillan-Kennedy years “The Golden Days of Mac and Jack.”3 Of course, such an interpretation did not only emerge in hindsight. The contemporary protagonists themselves, despite their native skepticism and hard-headedness, could not resist going all misty-eyed when looking back over their joint conduct of Anglo-American relations. Writing to Eisenhower in January 1961 on his departure from office, Macmillan claimed that “we had I think a deep unity of purpose and, I like to feel, a frank and honest appreciation of each other's good faith. …”4 In his valedictory message to Macmillan after the prime minister had announced his retirement, Kennedy enthused that “in nearly three years of cooperation, we have worked together on great and small issues, and we have never had a failure of understanding or of mutual trust.”5 Macmillan himself later reflected that Kennedy “seemed to trust me—and …for those of us who have had to play the so-called game of politics—national and international— this is something very rare and very precious. …”6