T | aHE idea, which grew to strength at the beginning of this century and flourished greatly during the Second World War, that there is a special Anglo-American relationship, has been out of fashion for some years now. The strong support of the United States for European unity, contrasted with Britain's reluctance to join the institutions of European union; the relative decline in Britain's power, and, even more, the perhaps exaggerated sense of it among the British people; and, above all, the blow to the intimate Anglo-American partnership constituted by the Suez crisis of 1956-these things have tended to overshadow bilateral and unique Anglo-American contacts. Mr. Macmillan most successfully repaired the major damage arising from Suez in the late 1950s by restoring a warm working co-operation, but something of the pristine cordiality of Anglo-American relations has appeared, to some observers, to be lacking. With the inauguration of a startlingly young President and Administration in Washington in 1961, it was widely proclaimed that any special relationship was at an end; the rise, it was said, of new generations, which had not been in the seats of power during the heyday of Anglo-American unity in the war, had delivered the coup de grace. Henceforth, in this view, relations between Britain and the United States would differ little from those between other sovereign nations in alliance. How true is this? Is the peculiar Anglo-American relationship at the very best in abeyance, and at the worst at an end? It may first be observed that the argument from age is a little premature at a time when we in this country have the youngest Cabinet of the century. The men in their forties now were not in high office in the war, it is true, but they fought in it, and were at an age to be powerfully impressed, indeed moulded, by its course, including the closeness and success of Anglo-American co-operation. In other words, they too lived through the high noon of Anglo-American unity, even if at the lower levels of influence, and it may well be that they are in fact less hampered than their elders were by bitter memories of American inter-war isolationism; the fate of the League of Nations does not perhaps haunt their memories and colour their feelings in quite the same way. It is indeed possible to argue that, even if the Anglo-American relationship