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“A Delicate Structure”: Consolidation and Crisis in the Persian Gulf Region, 1957–1960

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American Ascendance and British Retreat in the Persian Gulf Region

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Abstract

Harold Macmillan, like Winston Churchill, was born to an American mother and a British father. He believed firmly in the importance of transatlantic political cooperation as the cornerstone of British security, but, unlike Churchill, he refused to sentimentalize or mythologize the Anglo-American alliance. Churchill’s paeans to the “special relationship” between the “English-speaking peoples” seemed manifestly inappropriate in the political aftermath of the Suez crisis. As foreign secretary, Macmillan had seen Anthony Eden’s health and political reputation ruined by the debacle in Egypt. Eden’s decision to deceive the United States about British intentions during the Middle East crisis of 1956 and President Eisenhower’s furious refusal to support British actions effectively ended Eden’s prime ministry. When Macmillan entered office in January 1957, he recognized that Britain’s role in the world and its relationship to the United States must be thoroughly reappraised and set on a new foundation. An unsentimental reassessment of the U.S.-British alliance was the first step in developing a new policy that would allow strategists and diplomats in London to bring American power more effectively to bear on British interests in the Persian Gulf region.

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Notes

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Fain, W.T. (2008). “A Delicate Structure”: Consolidation and Crisis in the Persian Gulf Region, 1957–1960. In: American Ascendance and British Retreat in the Persian Gulf Region. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230613362_4

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