compassion, collaboration & cooperation iN transistion
After his summit with President Franklin Roosevelt in August 1941, Winston Churchill told the House of Commons that Britain and the United States “will have to be somewhat mixed up together in some of their affairs for mutual and general advantage.”
He envisioned joint military bases, “common study of potential dangers,” and “interchange of officers and cadets.” He even mused about “common citizenship” for Americans and Brits. Washington and London never got quite that far, but they did forge what Churchill later called “a special relationship” to protect and promote their common interests. Today, as both countries deal with security challenges abroad and fiscal challenges at home, the special relationship is deepening in unprecedented ways.
Views: 269
Tags:
Although the two countries had a fitful history - going to war in the late 1700s, early 1800s
and nearly again in the early 1900s—the foundation of close collaboration was always there.
Teddy Roosevelt, for example, said the British and Americans are “akin…in feeling and principle.”
Pushed by those shared principles, the U.S. bankrolled the British in World War I. The U.S. and Britain
began exchanging intelligence about Japan in 1937. And as Britain fought alone against Hitler,
FDR opened the “great arsenal of democracy” so that Churchill might keep his island nation alive.
Churchill knew America paid a price for focusing on the Atlantic. “If the United States have been
found at a disadvantage at various points in the Pacific Ocean,” he said after Pearl Harbor,
“we know well that it is to no small extent because of the aid you have been giving us.”
As if to consecrate the U.S.-U.K. bond, FDR’s personal envoy to Britain, Harry Hopkins, rose
during a dinner with Churchill and quoted from the Book of Ruth: “Whither thou goest I will go,
and whither thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God,”
he declared, dramatically adding, “even to the end.” Churchill wept openly.
During the war, Churchill set up a Joint Staff Mission in Washington, D.C., as a liaison to
the U.S. military. FDR’s military liaison to Churchill was the Supreme Allied Commander,
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. Indeed, the pairings of presidents and prime ministers underscore
the common bonds and common history: Churchill and FDR, Churchill and Truman,
Churchill and Ike, Reagan and Thatcher, Clinton and Blair, Blair and Bush. Together, Britain and
America shaped the postwar world—rescuing West Berlin from Stalin, building NATO, defending
Korea. By the mid-1950s, they agreed, in the words of a Pentagon memo, to “coordinate the atomic
strike plans of the United States Air Force with the Royal Air Force” and share “atomic bombs in
the event of general war.”
Thanks to Anglo-American resolve, the Cold War was won without those bombs ever falling.
As Britain and America braced for another kind of war, in Kosovo, Prime Minister Tony Blair
recalled Hopkins’ toast during a summit with President Bill Clinton. This time, it was the
American leader who wept.
After his summit with President Franklin Roosevelt in August 1941, Winston Churchill told
the House of Commons that Britain and the United States “will have to be somewhat mixed up
together in some of their affairs for mutual and general advantage.” He envisioned joint military
bases, “common study of potential dangers,” and “interchange of officers and cadets.” He even
mused about “common citizenship” for Americans and Brits. Washington and London never got
quite that far, but they did forge what Churchill later called “a special relationship” to protect
and promote their common interests. Today, as both countries deal with security challenges
abroad and fiscal challenges at home, the special relationship is deepening in unprecedented
ways.
Add a Comment
© 2024 Created by Michael Grove. Powered by
To quote Ed Murrow … OUR HISTORY will BE what WE MAKE of IT