The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)

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belong to
Europe but a close co-operation with Europe was necessary, which
became his third policy when he was Prime
Minister, after the “special
relationship” and the evolution of the Commonwealth. However, although
still
rejecting the subordination of British policy to American policy, when he became
Prime Minister,
as a result of the Suez Crisis he took a moderate line and re-
established a close relationship with the
Americans, as he, like Churchill, thought
that the “special relationship” was fundamental to
Britain, her interests and
security. Nevertheless, despite the close relationship that Macmillan
established
when he became Prime Minister, he still did not wish to rely entirely on the
American
“umbrella”, and thus, after some hard negotiations, he managed to
retain an independent nuclear
capacity for Britain by obtaining Polaris.

Harold
Macmillan, similar to Douglas-Home, had long been troubled by
the threat from communism. Thus he had
concluded that in view of the
communist expansion and British economic crisis in the post-war period, the
only
practical solution to safeguard British interests would be to proceed with the
decolonisation in
conjunction with the creation of the Modern Commonwealth,
as well as having close relationships with the USA
and Western Europe. In fact
he began by re-establishing a personal relationship with Eisenhower, which
he
successfully continued, as a wise elder statesman, with Kennedy (though this
damaged his third major
initiative, UK entry into the EEC). Undoubtedly
however, the most important feature of Macmillan’s
leadership was the deliberate
acceleration of decolonisation which came by appointing lain Macleod
as
Colonial Secretary in 1959, on the basis of reaching agreement with nationalist
leaders and retaining
institutionalised ties between the former colonies and the
“mother country”.

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