The Churchill Complex

The Rise and Fall of the Special Relationship from Winston and FDR to Trump and Johnson

Ian Buruma

• Éditeur: Atlantic Books
• Année: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781786494665
• Sujet: History
• Sous-sujet: Modern British History

It is impossible to understand the last 75 years of British and American history without understanding the Anglo-American relationship, and specifically the bonds between presidents and prime ministers. FDR of course had Churchill; JFK famously had Macmillan, his consigliere during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Reagan found his ideological soul mate in Thatcher, and George W. Bush found his fellow believer, in religion and in war, in Tony Blair. In a series of shrewd and absorbing character studies, Ian Buruma takes the reader on a journey through the special relationship via the fateful bonds between president and prime minister. It's never been a relationship of equals: from Churchill's desperate cajoling and conniving to keep FDR on side, British prime ministers have put much more stock in the relationship than their US counterparts did. For Britain, resigned to the loss of its once-great empire, its close kinship to the world's greatest superpower would give it continued relevance, and serve as leverage to keep continental Europe in its place. As Buruma shows, this was almost always fool's gold. And now, as the links between the Brexit vote and the 2016 US election are coming into sharper focus, it is impossible to understand the populist uprising in either country without reference to Trump and Boris Johnson, though ironically, they are also the key, Buruma argues, to understanding the special relationship's demise.

Index

Abraham Lincoln, USS, 238–39

Acheson, Dean, 43, 48–51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 64, 98, 102

Adams, Gerry, 205

Afghanistan, 151–52, 214, 227–28, 231, 238, 240, 256

Africa, 46, 50–51, 96, 117, 214, 234, 244

Albanians, 216–17

Alexander, Douglas, 244

Alfred, King, 16

Algiers, 35, 43

Allen, Richard V., 158

Allied nations/forces: 9, 28, 31–36, 46–47, 49, 91, 153

American Revolution, 29, 62–63

Andreotti, Giulio, 168

Anglo-American relationship: and Berlin Wall, 99; under Blair-Bush, 239, 244; under Blair-Clinton, 209, 211–16, 221–22; and Bosnian War, 198; Churchill on, 5–6, 12, 59, 83–84; and economic liberalism, 154–55; Europeans suspicious of, 122; Falklands War and, 157–60; under Farage-Trump, 270–71; and Gulf War, 175–76, 186; and Iranian oil, 64–65, 151; under Johnson-Trump, 281–82; nuclear cooperation and, 44, 83–84, 101–3, 163–66; and relations with Germany, 274; rifts in, 115–16, 123, 158, 191, 203–7, 244; shared values of, 274; strength of, 100–101, 153, 186–87, 213; and Vietnam War, 111–16; during WWII, 18–22, 275. See also Special Relationship

Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, 65

Anglo-Saxon Review, The, 15

Anglo-Saxons, 10, 12, 99, 131, 168–69, 236; de Gaulle’s distrust/dislike of, 30–31, 36, 78, 92–94, 120, 122; love of liberty, 14–16, 193, 246–47; mission to liberate the world, 13–16, 183, 212; prejudices about, 71, 271; values of, 155, 212–13, 247–...