A Special Relationship

I once played Piquet, an elegant card game with a scoring system as readily learnt as Real Tennis. Churchill in later life played a lot of Bezique especially when he was Prime Minister in his last term, 1951 – 1955. Franklin Roosevelt favoured Poker during his second and third terms in office.

I wonder if any leaders play Bridge? I doubt it, as it requires concentration at a time when a leader needs relaxation. Churchill smoked cigars and drank brandy. Roosevelt was a mixologist.

“The President always mixed the drinks himself, experimenting with strange concoctions of gin and rum, vermouth and fruit juice.” (No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin)

Roosevelt also liked to fish off the back of a boat. When Alan Brooke went to Canada for joint meetings with the American Chiefs of Staff he was indulged with days fishing on glorious lakes in the wilderness. Had FDR discussed fishing with Alan Brooke, his strict Protestant, Ulster principles would have destroyed the “special relationship”. You caught an eel?

How special is the SR? It was forged in two world wars. After the second Great War successive American administrations have, so far, prevented a third war erupting in Europe; NATO, the Marshall Plan, etc. It was almost embarrassingly close between JFK and Macmillan. When Johnson hastily took the Presidency after Kennedy’s assassination and Alec Douglas-Home briefly succeeded Macmillan, they met in Washington in February 1964.

There is between our two countries the invisible chords of a mingled respect and understanding and affection, much as two brothers who may differ but whose ties are too strong to ever break.

So we meet today as Presidents and Prime Ministers of our two countries–as they have always met with friendship and high resolve to face our common problems and to try to settle them for the common good. Together our nations are secure. They are strong enough to win any fight, and we hope they are wise enough to prevent one. Together we search for tolerance, we search for hope, we search for peace.“ (Lyndon Johnson, President 1963 – 1969)

We are engaged, as you have so clearly and graphically put it, in the pursuits of peace and much of our talks will undoubtedly be concerned with how we can improve the situation in a difficult and dangerous world. And we in Britain are particularly conscious now of its difficulties and its dangers because we are engaged, as you know, far afield in trying to help to maintain stability and order which is, I know, your concern, too, as a great power.

Since, as you say, this is one of a sequence of meetings which have always been of great benefit to our two countries, I would like you to know that my firm desire is to keep as close as we can to the United States as partners and as allies and as two countries upon which the peace of the world may well depend. (Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister 1963 – 1964)

The geopolitical plates of power have shifted. The UK is diminished in its influence. The Queen carries respect and promotes soft power in the Commonwealth but looking not far ahead the United Kingdom may not be united much longer. I expect Northern Ireland to throw its lot in with the republic and Scotland to secede. England and Wales will be a small territory living next door to the EU and that could be fine, just don’t expect the United States to say hi in the hall at NATO meetings.

And the United States? It is a great power that should be re-calibrating to do business with a new empire, China. I will not live long enough to see how this plays out but maybe I will be there for the first spool of the movie.

Once a special relationship, now just good friends?