Abstract
On 17 December 1979, President Jimmy Carter welcomed British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the White House amid the Iranian hostage crisis. Standing on the White House lawn, Thatcher praised the United States as “the most powerful force for freedom and democracy the world over” and described Anglo-American relations as one of “natural affinity and affection, which stand above the buffetings of fate and fortune.” For Thatcher, the importance of Anglo-American relations clearly transcended any broader philosophical differences between the British Conservative Party and American Democratic Party. Furthermore, she was able to change Carter’s personal perception of her. The president concurred with his National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski that Thatcher was no longer the “dogmatic” leader they had met two years earlier. Nonetheless, a lack of personal chemistry, and Carter’s defeat by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election meant that the Carter–Thatcher relationship goes relatively overlooked in the historiography of Anglo-American relations. Certainly, it is never fêted as an example of the “special relationship,” which is typically taken to include ongoing issues related to defense, nuclear cooperation, intelligence sharing, and political cooperation. In contrast, Thatcher’s relationship with President Reagan has received much more attention in the “higher journalism” of Anglo-American relations, which has broadly celebrated a commonality of economic philosophy and meeting of political minds. However, the historiography has proven more skeptical of a political marriage wrapped in the policies and rhetoric of a reassertion of free-market and Cold Warrior principles. Reagan and Thatcher undoubtedly defined a decade in their own countries, but they also established a pattern and symbolism for Anglo-American relations of which subsequent relationships between presidents and prime ministers would be measured. In fact, the image of Reagan and Thatcher as an example of the special relationship has experienced a revival with claims by President Donald J. Trump that Prime Minister Theresa May is “my Maggie.”
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Margaret Thatcher, Speech at White House, 17 December 1979 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/104194).
- 2.
Memorandum, Zbigniew Brzezinski to Jimmy Carter, 12 May 1979, Margaret Thatcher Foundation (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110467).
- 3.
On the Carter-Thatcher relationship see Thomas Robb, Jimmy Carter and the Anglo-American ‘Special Relationship’ (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017), chapters 4 and 5; Alan P. Dobson, Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century: Of Friendship, Conflict and the Rise and Decline of Superpowers (London: Routledge, 1995), 145–51; and, John Dumbrell, A Special Relationship: Anglo-American Relations from the Cold War to Iraq (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 100–5.
- 4.
For “higher journalistic” accounts of the Reagan–Thatcher relationship see Geoffrey Smith, Reagan and Thatcher (London: Bodley Head, 1990); John O’Sullivan, The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister (Washington D.C.: Regnery, 2006); Nicholas Wapshott, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage (London: Sentinel, 2007).
- 5.
See, for instance, Richard Aldous, Reagan & Thatcher: The Difficult Relationship (Hutchinson: London, 2012); James Cooper, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan: A Very Political Special Relationship (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012).
- 6.
Christopher Hope and Ben Riley-Smith, “Donald Trump to meet Theresa May before any other foreign leader since his inauguration as new deal planned for Britain,” Telegraph, 22 January 2017.
- 7.
For an early comparative study of the policies of the Thatcher government and Reagan administration see Andrew Adonis and Tim Hames (eds.), A Conservative Revolution? The Thatcher-Reagan Decade in Perspective (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994). For the intellectual origins of Thatcherism and Reaganism, and their policies’ execution and legacy, see Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy (New York, NY: Free Press, 2008), 74–106, 338–78.
- 8.
Smith, Reagan and Thatcher, 23; Margaret Thatcher, speech at the Pilgrim’s Dinner, 29 January 1981, Savoy Hotel, London (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104557).
- 9.
Letter from Ronald Reagan to Margaret Thatcher, 2 February 1981, accessed via http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/109257, 20 March 2017.
- 10.
Aldous, Reagan and Thatcher, 268–9. (To access around a quarter of this correspondence, readers can visit: http://www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/usa.asp).
- 11.
Anglo-American relations frustrated even Winston Churchill, the archetypal Atlanticist. See William Roger Louis, Imperialism at Bay: The United States and the Decolonization of the British Empire, 1941–1945 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977); Christopher Thorne, Allies of a Kind: The United States, Britain, and the War Against Japan, 1941–1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978); Warren Kimball, Forged in War: Churchill, Roosevelt and the Second World War (London: HarperCollins, 1997); David Reynolds, From World War to Cold War: Churchill, Roosevelt and the International History of the 1940s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 49–74, 121–36, 309–30. For Anglo-American relations generally, see Alex Danchev, “On Specialness,” International Affairs 72, no. 4 (1996): 737–50; Kathleen Burk, Old World, New World: The Story of Britain and America (London: Little, Brown, 2007); Alan P. Dobson and Steve Marsh (eds.), Anglo-American Relations: Contemporary Perspectives (Abington: Routledge, 2013).
- 12.
David Gill, “Peter Carrington,” in Jennifer Mackby & Paul Cornish (eds.), US–UK Nuclear Cooperation after Fifty Years (Washington D.C.: CSIS Press, 2008), 267.
- 13.
Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (London: HarperCollins, 1993), 68–9.
- 14.
Ibid., 157.
- 15.
Ronald Reagan, An American Life (London: Hutchinson, 1990), 204.
- 16.
Margaret Thatcher interviewed by Geoffrey Smith about Ronald Reagan, 8 January 1990 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/109324).
- 17.
William Rees-Mogg, “How America sees Europe, Best of friends with Britain again,” Times, 6 May 1980; David S. Broder, “Reagan’s Imported Tory Tactics,” Washington Post, 16 September 1984; George Gale, “Peace through strength—Hopefully, that is what the Reagan victory will mean to the West,” Daily Express, 8 November 1980.
- 18.
Smith, Reagan and Thatcher, 20–2.
- 19.
David Broder, “Britain Has Bad News For Our Democrats; If Reagan Can Emulate Thatcher, Even High Unemployment Won’t Beat Him,” Washington Post, 5 June 1983.
- 20.
James Cooper, “‘Superior to anything I had seen in the States’: the ‘Thatcherisation’ of Republican strategy in 1980 and 1984,” Journal of Transatlantic Studies 11, no. 1 (2013): 5–9.
- 21.
Smith, Reagan and Thatcher, 22.
- 22.
Memorandum for the President from George P. Shultz, Subject: Your Trip to the United Kingdom: Setting and Issues, May 14, 1984, The Presidents’ Trip to Europe: Ireland, UK and Normandy (1 of 6), 06/01/1984–06/10/1984, Box 20, Coordination, NSC, Office of Records, Reagan Library.
- 23.
Cooper, Thatcher and Reagan, 91–3, 102–12, 159–67.
- 24.
For a detailed account of this meeting see James Cooper, “‘I must brief you on the mistakes’: When Ronald Reagan Met Margaret Thatcher, February 25–28, 1981,” The Journal of Policy History, 25, no. 2 (2014): 274–97.
- 25.
No. 10 telephone conversation, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, 21 January 1981 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/114254).
- 26.
For a discussion of the British economy in Thatcher’s first term see Richard Vinen, Thatcher’s Britain: The Politics and Social Upheaval of the 1980s (London: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 101–33.
- 27.
Memorandum, Martin Anderson to senior White House staff, ‘Reaganism and Thatcherism,’ 26 February 1981 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111729). American concern about British fortunes was not a new development. For instance, in 1975 Henry Kissinger scathingly told President Gerald Ford that Britain was “a tragedy.” See Memcon, Henry Kissinger and President Ford, Wednesday 8 June 1975 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110510).
- 28.
Ibid.
- 29.
Memorandum, Alexander Haig to Ronald Reagan, “Visit of Prime Minister Thatcher,” Briefing Book re visit of British Prime Minister Thatcher, February 25–28, 1981, Binder 1/2, Box 91434 (RAC 1), Executive Secretariat, NSC: VIP Visits, Reagan Library.
- 30.
Philip Geyelin, “In Thatcher’s Tracks,” Washington Post, 24 February 1981.
- 31.
Remarks at the Welcoming Ceremony for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom, February 26, 1981, Public Papers of President Ronald W. Reagan, Reagan Presidential Library.
- 32.
Margaret Thatcher, remarks arriving at the White House, 26 February 1981 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104576).
- 33.
Donald Regan’s criticism of Mrs Thatcher’s economic policy, Transcript attached to letter from Sir Kenneth Couzens KCB, Overseas Finance, HM Treasury, to Mr Beryl Sprinkel, Under Secretary Designate, Monetary Affairs, U.S. Treasury, 3 March 1981 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/114256).
- 34.
Don Oberdorfer, “Anglo Accord; U.S.-British Accord Proclaimed ‘On All Major Strategic Issues’; U.S. Proclaims Basic Agreement ‘On All Strategic Issues,’” Washington Post, 1 March 1981.
- 35.
Margaret Thatcher, House of Commons Statement (Prime Minister, American Visit), Monday 2 March 1981 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104585).
- 36.
Ibid.
- 37.
Michael Schaller, Reckoning with Reagan: America and Its President in the 1980s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 46. The Reagan-Bush administrations saw a doubling of US national debt as a proportion of GDP to nearly 70 percent in 1993. The ratio of debt to GDP in 2015 was 104.17 percent.
- 38.
No. 10 record of conversation (Margaret Thatcher, Geoffrey Howe, “Versailles Summit”), 26 May 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/137515).
- 39.
Cooper, Thatcher and Reagan, 86–7.
- 40.
No. 10 record of conversation (Margaret Thatcher, Geoffrey Howe, “Versailles Summit”), 26 May 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/137515).
- 41.
PREM 19/943: Letter, Geoffrey Howe to Margret Thatcher, “President Reagan and the US Budget Debate,” 3 June 1982.
- 42.
White House record of conversation (“President’s meeting with UK PM Margaret Thatcher”—Bush, Haig, Clark) Wednesday 23 June 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/136353); John Coles (10 Downing Street) to Brian Fall (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), No. 10 record of conversation (Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, Alexander Haig, Nicholas Henderson, William P. Clark), Wednesday 23 June 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/145054).
- 43.
Douglas Brinkley (ed.), Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries (New York, 2007), 78.
- 44.
Nicholas Henderson, Mandarin: The Diaries of Nicholas Henderson (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1994), 467–68.
- 45.
Telegram From Secretary of State Haig to the Department of State, London, April 9, 1982, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XIII, Conflict in the South Atlantic, 1981–1984 (Washington: United States Government Publishing Office, 2015), Document 82.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
Richard Vinen, Thatcher’s Britain: The Politics and Social Upheaval of the 1980s (London: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 142.
- 48.
Henderson, Mandarin, 168.
- 49.
Margaret Thatcher message to Ronald Reagan, 16 April 1982, (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/122860).
- 50.
NSC meeting minutes, Archive (Reagan Library), 30 April 1982 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/114329).
- 51.
Ibid.
- 52.
Reagan, An American Life, 359–360.
- 53.
Memorandum From Secretary of State Haig to President Reagan, Paris, Undated, “Your meeting with Prime Minister Thatcher at the Versailles Summit,” Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XIII, Conflict in the South Atlantic, 1981–1984, Document 322.
- 54.
Ibid. In a speech largely dedicated to the Cold War, Reagan emphatically voiced his support for British action in the Falklands: “On distant islands in the South Atlantic young men are fighting for Britain. And, yes, voices have been raised protesting their sacrifice for lumps of rock and earth so far away. But those young men aren’t fighting for mere real estate. They fight for a cause—for the belief that armed aggression must not be allowed to succeed, and the people must participate in the decisions of government—[applause]—the decisions of government under the rule of law. If there had been firmer support for that principle some 45 years ago, perhaps our generation wouldn’t have suffered the bloodletting of World War II.” Address to Members of the British Parliament, June 8, 1982, Public Papers of President Ronald W. Reagan. Reagan Presidential Library.
- 55.
Fendly, Commercial Break, 60.
- 56.
Martin Burch, “The Politics of Persuasion and the Conservative Leadership’s Campaign” in Ivor Crewe and Martin Harrop (eds.), Political Communications: The General Election Campaign of 1983 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 70.
- 57.
Alison Fendley, Commercial Break: The inside story of Saatchi & Saatchi (London: Hamish & Hamilton, 1995), 65.
- 58.
Martin Harrison, “Broadcasting” in David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh (eds.), The British General Election of 1983 (London: Macmillan, 1984), 150.
- 59.
The 1983 Conservative Manifesto, Wednesday 18 May 1983 (www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110859).
- 60.
David S. Broder, “GOP Seeks Signs, Strategy In Thatcher’s Election Stakes,” Charlotte Observer, 9 June 1983.
- 61.
Ibid.
- 62.
John Grimond, “GOP Should Study Britons’ Reactions to Unemployment,” Los Angeles Times, 12 June 1983; Report, S. Anna Kondrates (Deputy Director of Research) and Vivianne Schneider (Issues Analyst), through William I. Greener III (Director of Communications) and Philip Kawior (Director of Research), to Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. (Chairman), June 20, 1983, 182559, C0167, WHORM: Subject File, Reagan Library.
- 63.
Ibid.
- 64.
US Ambassador (London) to Secretary of State (British hopes for Thatcher US visit), Thursday 15 September 1983 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/109408).
- 65.
Shultz briefing for President Reagan (Thatcher meeting), Tuesday 20 September 1983 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/109389).
- 66.
TNA: PREM 19/1153: Record of a conversation at a working lunch given by the President of the United States for the Prime Minister at the White House at 1240 hours on Thursday, 29 September 1983.
- 67.
White House record of conversation (Thatcher-Reagan), Thursday 29 September 1983 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/133913).
- 68.
Ibid.
- 69.
Margaret Thatcher, Press Conference after meeting President Reagan, 29 September 1983 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105447).
- 70.
Steven R. Weisman, “U.S. Deficit worries Mrs. Thatcher,” New York Times, 30 September 1983.
- 71.
Aldous, Reagan & Thatcher, 144; John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher Volume Two: The Iron Lady (London: Vintage, 2008), 273.
- 72.
Aldous, Reagan & Thatcher, 145.
- 73.
Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, 190.
- 74.
George Shultz, Turmoil & Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1993), 340.
- 75.
Aldous, Reagan & Thatcher, 154.
- 76.
Ibid., 151–53. For the full transcript, see “Reagan phone call to Thatcher,” 26 October 1983 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/109426).
- 77.
House of Commons PQs, 27 October 1983 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105459).
- 78.
Aldous, Reagan & Thatcher, 145. Thatcher made this statement during a phone-in program on the BBC World Service, 30 October 1983. See: (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110628).
- 79.
David S. Broder, “Reagan’s Imported Tory Tactics,” Washington Post, 16 September 1984.
- 80.
E.D. Dover, Images, Issues, and Attacks: Television Advertising by Incumbents and Challengers in Presidential Elections (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006), 30.
- 81.
Ibid., 31.
- 82.
“London Economic Summit Conference Declaration, June 9, 1984,” Public Papers of President Ronald W. Reagan. Reagan Presidential Library.
- 83.
UKE Washington telegram to FCO (“US Public Reactions to the Summit”). Monday 11 June 1984 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/145784).
- 84.
Reagan, Reagan Diaries, Friday 8 June 1984, 246.
- 85.
US Ambassador Charles Price letter to Margaret Thatcher, Thursday 14 June 1984 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/136370).
- 86.
Minutes of Full Cabinet—CC(84) 22nd, 14 June 1984 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/133181).
- 87.
Thatcher, Downing Street Years.
- 88.
Prime Minister’s Meeting with the United States Ambassador at 10 Downing Street, 8 November 1984 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/149861).
- 89.
No. 10 record of conversation, Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev (private lunchtime conversation), 16 December 1984; No. 10 record of conversation, Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev (afternoon meeting), 16 December 1984 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/134729 and 134730).
- 90.
No. 10 minute, Record of a meeting between the Prime Minister and President Reagan at Camp David on 22 December 1984, (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/136436).
- 91.
Ibid.
- 92.
For Thatcher’s cautious view of SDI and delicate approach to discussing it with Reagan, see her own account: Thatcher, Downing Street Years, 463–6.
- 93.
Ibid.
- 94.
No. 10 record of conversation (Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan), 22 December 1984 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/149847).
- 95.
Margaret Thatcher, Press Conference after Camp David Talks, 22 December 1984 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/109392).
- 96.
Thatcher-Reagan meeting at Camp David, 22 December 1984 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/109185).
- 97.
Ibid.
- 98.
David Reynolds, Summits: Six Meetings that Shaped the Twentieth Century (London: Penguin, 2007), 317–69.
- 99.
Aldous, Reagan and Thatcher, 216–18.
- 100.
White House record of conversation, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, 13 October 1986, accessed via http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/143809, 31 March 2017.
- 101.
Ibid.
- 102.
Memorandum, John M. Poindexter to President Ronald Reagan, Subject: Why We Can’t Commit to Eliminating All Nuclear Weapons Within 10 Years, 16 October 1986, accessed via http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/143794, 31 March 2017.
- 103.
Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, Saturday 15 November 1986, 451.
- 104.
Margaret Thatcher, The Autobiography (London: HarperPress, 2013), 519.
- 105.
Miller Center. “Interview with Frank Carlucci,” University of Virginia, August 28, 2001 (https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/interviews-with-the-administration/frank-carlucci-oral-history-assistant-president).
- 106.
Ibid.
- 107.
In Thatcher’s case, see James Cooper, “The Foreign Politics of Opposition: Margaret Thatcher and the Transatlantic Relationship before Power,” Contemporary British History 24, no. 1 (2010): 23–42.
- 108.
Memorandum, Frank C. Carlucci to Ronald Reagan, 26 March 1987, 464657, C0167, WHORM: Subject File, Reagan Library.
- 109.
Memorandum, George P. Shultz to Ronald Reagan, 24 March 1987, 467199, C0167, WHORM: Subject Files, Reagan Library.
- 110.
Notes of meeting between President Reagan and Neil Kinnock, 27 March 1987, Neil Kinnock Papers, KNNK 19/2/43, Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
- 111.
Brinkley, The Reagan Diaries, Friday 27 March 1987, 486.
- 112.
Memo for Marlin Fitzwater, “Kinnock call on the President: Schedule and Press Queries,” 27 March 1987, Neil Kinnock—British Labor Leader (1 of 2) 03/27/1987, Box 90912, Coordination Office, NSC: Records, Reagan Library.
- 113.
Ibid.
- 114.
“Kinnock Given US Warning,” Daily Telegraph, 28 March 1987.
- 115.
George Gordon, “Reagan Takes his Revenge on Kinnock,” Daily Mail, 28 March 1987; Robert Gibson, “Angry Reagan flays Kinnock,” Daily Express, 28 March 1987; “Kinnock Given US Warning,” Daily Telegraph, 28 March 1987.
- 116.
Letter, Charles Clarke to Ray (surname unknown), March 31 1987, KNNK 19/2/38.
- 117.
Ibid.
- 118.
Based on interviews with: Lord Kinnock, 9 November 2010; Mr Charles Clarke, 6 December 2011; Sir Bernard Ingham, 28 May 2012; Lord Powell of Bayswater, 20 June 2012; and, Lord Hurd of Westwell, 20 June 2012.
- 119.
For the Iran-Contra scandal, see Robert Busby, Reagan and the Iran-Contra Affair: The Politics of Presidential Recovery (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999); Malcolm Byrne, Iran-Contra: Reagan’s Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2014).
- 120.
Margaret Thatcher, TV Interview for CBS News, Friday 17 July 1987 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/106913).
- 121.
Margaret Thatcher, TV Interview for CBS Face the Nation, Friday 17 July 1987 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/106915).
- 122.
Ibid.
- 123.
Brinkley, Reagan Diaries, Sunday 19 July 1987, 517.
- 124.
Brinkley, Reagan Diaries, Friday 17 July 1987, 516. (Unfortunately, the minutes of the meeting are not available at the time of writing.)
- 125.
Margaret Thatcher to Ronald Reagan, 22 October 1987 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/110979).
- 126.
There was some action to reduce the US Budgetary deficit through increased corporate taxation: the 1982 Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act and the 1984 Deficit Reduction Act. Nevertheless, Reagan refused to reverse his income tax cuts. Similarly, the Thatcher epoch marked a dramatic shift to indirect taxation in Britain while cutting high-income tax rates. For instance, Value Added Tax (VAT) almost doubled in 1979 and VAT was extended to include building repairs and take-away food in 1984.
- 127.
Ronald Reagan to Margaret Thatcher, 4 November 1987 (http://margaretthatcher.org/document/110980).
- 128.
Nicholas Wood and Richard Ford, “Thatcher Tells Reagan to Act Now on Budget,’ Times , 6 November 1987. (The article suggests that a cable was sent in early November; however, the only available message from Thatcher to Reagan about the deficit at that time is the cable dated 22 October 1987.)
- 129.
Robin Oakley, “Thatcher Pressure Over US Deficits Stepped Up,” Times, 2 November 1987.
- 130.
“What America Must Do,” Times, 6 November 1987.
- 131.
Robin Oakley, “Lawson Increases Pressure for US to Reduce Deficit,” Times, 5 November 1987; “Calling the President,” Times, 5 November 1987.
- 132.
Stephen Milligan, “World Waits for Reagan,” Sunday Times, 8 November 1987.
- 133.
Iwan Morgan, Reagan: American Icon (London: I.B. Tauris, 2016), 248.
- 134.
Margaret Thatcher, “Reagan’s Leadership, America’s Recovery,” National Review, 30 December 1988, 22–4; Ronald Reagan, “Margaret Thatcher and the Revival of the West,” National Review, 19 May 1989, 21–2.
- 135.
Aldous, Reagan & Thatcher, 270–1.
- 136.
Margaret Thatcher, Eulogy for Reagan, 11 June 2004 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110360).
- 137.
Interview with Lord Lawson of Blaby, 27 February 2007.
- 138.
Ibid. (President George H.W. Bush was in the United Kingdom for bilateral meetings with Thatcher and participation in summits a number of times during his presidency, and it is unknown to which occasion Lord Lawson was specifically referring.).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cooper, J. (2022). Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Not So “Special” Relationship?. In: Cullinane, M.P., Farr, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Presidents and Prime Ministers From Cleveland and Salisbury to Trump and Johnson. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72276-0_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72276-0_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-72275-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-72276-0
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)