That is how McGeorge Bundy, national security adviser to Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, once summed up the "special relationship" — the partnership between the American and British people.
The April state visit of King Charles and Queen Camilla of Britain (more properly the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland) and the Commonwealth (formerly the British Empire) provides an opportunity to repair relations, frayed mainly by the Iran War.
The first visit by reigning British monarchs was King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in June 1939, in response to a shrewd, far-sighted invitation by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Our special relationship was formalized by FDR and Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the darkest days of World War II. The two leaders met on navy vessels off the coast of Newfoundland in August 1941. Churchill returned to meet with Roosevelt at the White House and addressed a joint session of Congress in December of that year, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The first of these historic meetings resulted in the Atlantic Charter, which defined broad positive human goals of freedom and basic economic security. The follow-up session resulted in commitment to the concept of the United Nations.
This close partnership between Britain and the U.S., forged during the frightening and frustrating first phase of World War II in Europe, has endured to the present despite occasional strains. The evolution of the relationship underscores the important events of that war, the Cold War and the post-Cold War eras that followed.
During the mid-1960s, the Johnson administration pressed extremely hard for at least token direct military participation in the Vietnam War. Australia and New Zealand, both members of the British Commonwealth, provided forces. In the case of Australia, there was considerably more than a token commitment.
Britain did not join that war, for understandable reasons. In hindsight, this lack of support by a close ally was an early indication of the questionable nature of the American military escalation.
The most serious Anglo-American and wider Atlantic alliance crisis was not the current Mideast conflicts but instead over the Suez Canal in 1956. Britain, France and Israel launched a coordinated surprise military attack to retake the waterway and associated territory from Egypt’s nationalist government.
President Dwight Eisenhower was completely opposed, as well as offended by the lack of consultation. His administration forced an abrupt halt to the operation. No crisis since has so seriously threatened the alliance.
Source: Korea Times News
