The End of the ‘Special Relationship’? The Heath-Nixon Years in Perspective

ABSTRACT

The Heath-Nixon years, 1970–1974, have been widely characterised as marking a low point in Anglo-American relations, even the end of the so-called ‘special relationship’. Overall, historians and commentators have tended to point the finger at Edward Heath, the British prime minister. As a committed Europhile, Heath is said to have deliberately downgraded relations with Washington in pursuit of membership of the European Economic Community [EEC], making the old habits of transatlantic co-operation impossible. Drawing on material from both sides of the Atlantic, this analysis presents a different perspective. Far from marking a transformation of British foreign policy, Heath’s determination to join the EEC stood as part of a longstanding effort to reinvigorate Britain’s place in the world, including the alliance with Washington. Moreover, when it came to diplomatic relations, largely, it was the nature of policy-making under President Richard Nixon – assisted by his chief advisor, Henry Kissinger – that undermined the old patterns of co-operation. As the White House set out to transform international relations, overhaul the global economic order, and impose its Cold War rivalry on regional crises, London was left feeling impotent, marginalised, and even double-crossed – all of which fuelled the case for Europe.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ J. Dickie, ‘Special’ No More – Anglo American Relations: Rhetoric and Reality (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994), 133; cf. for example, David Dimbleby and David Reynolds, An Ocean Apart (London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1988), 261–66; A. Dobson, Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century (New York: Routledge, 1995), 24, 124; J. Dumbrell, A Special Relationship: Anglo-American Relations in the Cold War and After (London: Palgrave 2001), 73; and C. Hill and C. Lord, “The foreign policy of the Heath government,” in The Heath Government: A Reappraisal, ed. S. Ball and A. Seldon (London: Routledge, 1996), 305.

² R. Seitz, Over Here (London: Orion, 1998), 316–17.

³ J. Campbell, Edward Heath: A Biography (London: Pimilico, 1993), 336.

⁴ H. A. Kissinger, White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), 90.

⁵ David Reynolds, “Rethinking Anglo-American Relations,” International Affairs 65, no. 1 (1988): 89.

⁶ S. Marsh and J. Baylis, “The Anglo-American “Special Relationship”: The Lazarus of International Relations,” Diplomacy & Statecraft 17, no. 1 (2006): 173–211.

⁷ White House, “President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron, in Words and Photos,” July 20, 2010, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2010/07/20/president-obama-and-prime-minister-cameron-words-and-photos.

⁸ David Reynolds, “A “Special Relationship”: America, Britain and the International Order since the Second World War,” International Affairs 62, no. 1 (1985): 1–20.

⁹ Idem., The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance, 1937-41: A Study in Competitive Co-operation (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981).

¹⁰ D. C. Watt, Succeeding John Bull: America in Britain’s Place, 1900-1975 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1984).

¹¹ Reynolds, “A “Special Relationship”,” 2.

¹² Richard N. Gardner, “Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy in Current Perspective,” International Affairs 62, no. 1 (1985–1986): 21.

¹³ S. Dockrill, Britain’s Retreat from East of Suez: The Choice between Europe and the World? (Basingstoke, 2002), 198.

¹⁴ Ibid.

¹⁵ J. Ellison, The United States, Britain and the Transatlantic Crisis: Rising to the Gaullist Challenge (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2007), 183.

¹⁶ J. Coleman, “Communication: “What Now for Britain?” The State Department’s Intelligence Assessment of the “Special Relationship”, February 7, 1968,” Diplomacy & Statecraft 19, no. 2 (2008): 350–60.

¹⁷ Haldeman diary, June 19, 1970, NPMP [Nixon Presidential Materials Project, National Archives and Record Administration, College Park, MD] WHSF Box 41; and H Kissinger, Years of Renewal (London: Simon & Schuster, 1999), 602.

¹⁸ Kissinger, White House Years, 932.

¹⁹ H. Young, This Blessed Plot (London: Macmillan, 1998), 219.

²⁰ Campbell, Heath, 112-13.

²¹ “Record of Meeting: Heath-Pompidou,” May 20, 1971, PREM [Prime Minister’s Office Records, The National Archives, Kew] 15/372.

²² Dickie, ‘Special’ No More, 144–45; and Edward Heath, The Course of My Life. My Autobiography (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1998), 472.

²³ Kissinger, White House Years, 90.

²⁴ Ibid., 937.

²⁵ Cromer to Home, December 17, 1971, PREM 15/1570.

²⁶ Nixon-Kissinger Telcon, 11.31 PM, December 7, 1971, NPMP White House Tapes.

²⁷ Minutes: Kissinger’s Staff Meeting, October 23, 1973, “National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 98,” The October War and US Policy (2003), Document 63, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB98/index.htm.

²⁸ Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 163.

²⁹ Kissinger-Nixon Telcon, August 9 1973, NPMP HAK Telcons, Box 21.

³⁰ See for example, see C. Bartlett, ‘The Special Relationship’: A Political History of Anglo-American Relations since 1945 (London: Pearson Education, 1992),129–30; Campbell, Heath, 341; Dickie, ‘Special’ No More, 144–45; Dobson, Anglo-American Relations, 139–40; Dumbrell, Special Relationship, 75; P. Riddell, Hug Them Close: Blair, Clinton, Bush and the ‘Special Relationship’ (London: Politico's Publishing Ltd, 2003), 43–45; D. Sanders, Losing an Empire Finding a Role: British Foreign Policy since 1945 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 1990), 177; most recently, Alistair Horne, Kissinger: 1973, The Crucial Year (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 111.

³¹ R. Ovendale, Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 1998), 136–37.

³² Philip Ziegler, Edward Heath: The Authorised Biography (London: Harper Press, 2010), 374–84; and Horne, Kissinger’s Year, 111.

³³ Campbell, Heath, 335.

³⁴ C. Hynes, The Year that Never Was: Heath, the Nixon Administration and the Year of Europe (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2009), 241.

³⁵ See A. Scott, Allies Apart: Heath, Nixon and the Anglo-American Relationship (London: Palgrave, 2011).

³⁶ C. Booker and R. North, The Great Deception: Can the European Union Survive? (London: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2005), 167, 586.

³⁷ K. Younger, “Britain in Europe: The Impact on Foreign Policy,” International Affairs 48, no. 4 (1972): 580.

³⁸ Harold Macmillan, At the End of the Day, 1961-1963 (London Harper & Row Limited, 1973), 374.

³⁹ W. Neild-Heath, June 19, 1970, PREM 15/62.

⁴⁰ Home comments, Hansard, House of Commons (July 22, 1971), Volume 821, Column 715.

⁴¹ Home, October 14, 1971, Conservative Party Conference, NPMP.

⁴² Record of Cabinet Meeting, September 30, 1970, PREM 15/714.

⁴³ Heath statement, Hansard, House of Commons (October 28, 1971), Volume 823, Column 2203.

⁴⁴ Home, October 14, 1971, Conservative Party Conference, NPMP HAK Office Files, Rodman, Box 15.

⁴⁵ Johny to Moon, FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] Study, March 8, 1971, PREM 15/62.

⁴⁶ Heath, Course of My Life, 364.

⁴⁷ Edward Heath, Old World, New Horizons: Britain, the Common Market and the Atlantic Alliance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970).

⁴⁸ N. Rossbach, Heath, Nixon and the Rebirth of the Special Relationship: Britain, the US and the EC, 1969-74 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2009).

⁴⁹ “Draft paper on “Anglo-US Relations”,” Prepared by Embassy and planning staff, Washington, DC, January 17, 1969, FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office Records, The National Archives, Kew], 32/376.

⁵⁰ Home to Cromer, November 5, 1971, PREM 15/712.

⁵¹ FCO to Moon, November 5, 1971, Ibid.

⁵² Richard Nixon, “First Annual Report to Congress on United States Foreign Policy,” Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States [PPPUS], February 1970, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws; and National Security Study Memorandum 79, “Enlargement of the EC: Implications for the US and policy options,” October 13, 1969, NPMP.

⁵³ G. Lundestad, ‘Empire’ by Integration: The United States and European Integration, 1945-1997 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998), 20.

⁵⁴ “Telcon: Kissinger-Nixon,” August 9, 1973, NPMP, HAK Telcons, Box 21.

⁵⁵ J. Harper, American Visions of Europe: Franklin D. Roosevelt, George F. Kennan, and Dean G. Acheson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 339.

⁵⁶ H. A. Kissinger, Troubled Partnership: A Reappraisal of the Atlantic Alliance (New York: Praeger, 1965).

⁵⁷ J. Robert Schaetzel, Unhinged Alliance: America and the European Community (New York: Joanna Cotler Books, 1975), 78.

⁵⁸ Kissinger, White House Years, 937, 425.

⁵⁹ Annenberg telegram to Rogers, December 8, 1971, NPMP WHSF-WHCF, Subject Files, Oversized Attachments, Box 9.

⁶⁰ Heath to Home, April 24, 1971, PREM 15/1148 PZ 391.

⁶¹ David Reynolds, Summits: Six Meetings that Shaped the Twentieth Century (London: Allen Lane, 2007), 223.

⁶² Wilford to Millard, May 4, 1971, FCO 21/824.

⁶³ Ibid.

⁶⁴ Heath draft minute to Home, November 6, 1971, PREM 15/712.

⁶⁵ NY Times (February 13, 1971).

⁶⁶ Saturday Report, “President’s acceptance of invitation to Peking,” NPMP NSC Presidential Trip Files, Reaction to China, Box 499.

⁶⁷ Nixon-Rogers telephone conversation, 9.50 PM, August 15, 1971, NPMP White House Tapes.

⁶⁸ Heath draft minute to Home, November 6, 1971, PREM 15/712.

⁶⁹ FCO, “Future relations with the United States,” November 5, 1971, Ibid.

⁷⁰ David Hannay, ed., Britain’s Entry into the European Community. Report by Sir Con O’Neill on the Negotiations of 1970–1972 (London: Psychology Press, 2000), 345.

⁷¹ Stephen George, An Awkward Partner: Britain in the European Community (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 61.

⁷² Zeigler, Heath, 379.

⁷³ Overton to Wilford, September 14, 1971, FCO 82/61.

⁷⁴ Heath draft minute to Home, November 6, 1971, PREM 15/712.

⁷⁵ FCO Planning Paper, “Future Relations with the US,” November 11, 1971, FCO 82/84.

⁷⁶ Heath comments, Hansard, House of Commons (February 17, 1972), Volume 832, Columns 749–51.

⁷⁷ Younger, “Britain in Europe,” 585.

⁷⁸ Richard J. Barnet, The Alliance – America, Europe, Japan: Makers of the Postwar World (New York: Simon and Schuster 1983), 316.

⁷⁹ See B. White, Britain, Détente and Changing East-West Relations (London: Routledge, 1992).

⁸⁰ Kissinger, White House Years, 822.

⁸¹ Robert Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power (New York: Penguin, 2007), 140.

⁸² Carrington minute to Heath, November 29, 1972, FCO 82/182.

⁸³ Sohm telegram, December 6, 1971, NPMP NSC Indo-Pakistan, Box 571.

⁸⁴ Paper prepared by James Cable for the South Asia Department, “British Policy on the Indian Subcontinent,” December 18, 1971, FCO 37/756.

⁸⁵ Home telegram to Cromer, conveying message to Kissinger, November 28, 1973, Documents on British Policy Overseas [DBPO], Series III, Volume IV: The Year of Europe: America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972-1974 (Abingdon, 2006), Document 421.

⁸⁶ W. Cromwell, “Europe and the ‘Structure of Peace’,” Orbis 22(Spring, 1978):18.

⁸⁷ Heath, Course of My Life, 493.

⁸⁸ Trend minute to Heath, May 2, 1973, DBPO, III, IV, Document 81.

⁸⁹ T. Robb, A Strained Partnership? US-UK relations in the era of détente, 1966-77 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), 87.

⁹⁰ Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, 192.

⁹¹ Washington Post (October 27, 1973); and Economist (November 24, 1973).

⁹² Robb, A Strained Partnership?

Additional information

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Andrew Scott

Andrew Scott is currently a Conflict Adviser at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office in the British government. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge, where he was supervised by David Reynolds for his thesis, ‘Heath, Nixon and the Anglo-American Relationship, 1970-74’. Previously, he gained degrees in international history at the University of Leeds and the London School of Economics. He has also held visiting fellowships at Yale University.