Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
foreign relations (1951-1964) PART 1 - Coggle Diagram
foreign relations
(1951-1964)
PART 1
EFTA and attempts to join EEC
British attitudes began to shift; 1959, Britain took lead in formation of European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
EFTA only moderately successful, wasn't able to match economic growth of EEC
1958, de Gualle determined to protect partnership from 'les Anglo-Saxons' (UK + US influence)
1961, Macmillan govt applied to EEC, fundamental reasons for shift in attitude were economic; hoped joining EEC would:
6) Britain wanted to balance involvement in Europe w/ maintaining the 'special relationship'
1) boost industrial production for large-scale export market
5) assumption that Britain was still a great world power
2) increase industrial efficiency with greater competition
4) belief this was an issue for continental Europe; German's were deadly wartime enemies, France had been occupied + overrun, Britain had 'won the war'
3) stimulate economic growth with the rapid economic expansion already seen in EEC
3) right tended to regard preservation of traditional trade links to Australia, Canada + New Zealand are more important than with Europe
US was keen on UK joining for strategic reasons; UK vital link between Europe and USA - Cold War tensions - believed UK imperial power shaken by Suez and accelerating pace of decolonisation in Africa
2) left tended to be suspicious of free-market principles behind Common Market
1) very few politicians or journalists in favour of leadership role in Europe
scheme strongly supported by UK and USA, seen as vital at beginning of Cold War - UK did not initially become involved:
despite EEC application, UK wanted to keep position in the Commonwealth + US - made negotiations w/ EEC complicated
EEC already had developed detailed economic structures, especially the Common Agricultural Policy - difficulty conforming
special exemptions for UK's Commonwealth trade partners which would've been blocked by EEC had to be sought (e.g. lamb exports from NZ)
many months of hard bargaining (led by Heath), negotiations reached successful conclusion in Jan 1963, but last minute vetoed by de Gualle
de Gualla's intervention = bombshell. other members shocked + disappointed. intervention caused bad relations between UK + France
relations with + policies towards USA + USSR
Britain supported UN in Korea
worked with US to sustain West Berlin
UK + USA remained close allies in Cold War
Macmillan involved in plans for summit conference with Soviet leader (Khrushchev) in 1960
UK became founder member of NATO (1949)
also established good relationship with JFK, who kept Macmillan informed with the events of Cuban Missile Crisis, although described as 'bystanders' during the crisis
all allies in WW2, only US + UK stayed allies in opposing expansion of communism across Europe
appeared Britain kept it's place at international 'top table'
relations + policies dominated by Cold War
special relationship was sometimes under strain; e.g. Suez, EEC relationship + Burgess + Maclean affaire
Guy Burgess + Donald Maclean = highly placed officers in UK intelligence, defected to USSR (1951), years after; concerns about finding 'Third Man' who tipped them off
revelation that British spies had been leaking vital secrets to Moscow worried USA, became less ready to share intelligence secrets with UK
UK was still militarily overstretched + dependent on US power, demonstrated by cot of UK's independent nuclear deterrent
debates over nuclear deterrent
became most powerful pressure group, backed my intellectuals + mobilising m/c protestors
wanted Britain to reject weapons, follow UND instead
concerns led to formation of CND (1958)
8000 took part in demonstration at weapons research base, Berkshire (1958)
Britain's 'H' bomb tested (1957)
second march, 1959, even bigger
at this point, USA + USSR already developing powerful hydrogen bomb
CND's 'unilateralism' - powerful magnet for anti-govt protest + many labour left-wingers joined us
made Britain 3rd in world to develop nuclear weapons, (after US + USSR)
by 1958, US agreed to share nuclear tech under Mutual Defence Agreement
Churchill continued Labour's nuclear policy, first atomic bomb test 1952
'Blue Streak' abandoned 1960, replaced by dependence on US Polaris submarine weapons
US stopped sharing nuclear secrets so Britain had to become nuclear power themselves
became clear UK wouldn't have independent nuclear deterrent, some in labour became more sceptical of supporting pro-nuclear policy
labour govt after war had committed UK to developing independent nuclear deterrent