| | |  Editorials | Opinions | March 2009 
Deceitful Relationship Between the United States and the United Kingdom
 Ivan Simic - PVNN
| | British King George III promised never to recognize the independence of Americans and to punish them in every possible way. | |
For decades relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom was described as perfect, special and unbreakable. This unique relationship is best known through the remarkably close political, military, diplomatic and cultural relations. However, when it comes to this unique relationship, many things are left out and ignored.
The US declaration of independence
Disputes and Wars
War between Britain and America was imminent. Henry Clay, the US statesman, leader of the “War Hawk”, advocated declaration of war against the Great Britain. British, on the other side continued pursuing the “Rule of 1756” (a policy saying that Britain would not trade with neutral nations who were also trading with the enemy. It also ruled that Britain would not open trade with any nation during wartime). As a result, in June, 1812, the US President James Madison declared war on the Great Britain; the first declaration of war by the US against another country. The war was initiated with a reason: to protect American trading rights and freedom of the seas for neutral countries, and to stop British support to Native Americans. During the war, British forces occupied Washington DC and set fire to many public buildings, including the White House.
Again in 1871, British and Americans were signing the treaty, this time it was the “Treaty of Washington”. The treaty was designed to settle various differences between the two governments, and ones regarding the “Alabama Claims”. The “Alabama Claims” were a series of claims for damages by the US government against the government of the Great Britain for the alleged secret assistance given to the Confederate cause during the American Civil War. The “CSS Alabama” made significant damage to the Union Navy and merchant marine during the American Civil War. At Geneva, in 1872, the US was awarded $15,500,000 according to the terms of the treaty, and the British apologized for the destruction caused by the British-built Confederate ships, while admitting no guilt.
World War I and II
When a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania in 1915, with 128 Americans aboard, the US President Woodrow Wilson vowed, "America is too proud to fight". Americans demanded an end to attacks on passenger ships. Germany immediately complied with the US demands.
Then Britain's secret Royal Navy cryptanalytic group (Room 40), intercepted and decoded “Zimmermann Telegram”, a coded telegram dispatched by the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann, on January 16, 1917, to the German Ambassador in Washington, Johann von Bernstorff, at the height of World War I. It was a proposal to Mexico to join the war as Germany's ally against the United States, Mexico rejected proposal.
British revealed the Zimmermann Telegram to the United States, the revelation of its contents in the American press on March 1 caused public outrage that contributed to the United State’s declaration of war against Germany. Wilson called for war on Germany and its allies, which the US Congress declared on 6 April 1917. As a reminder: WW I started in 1914, almost three years before the first US troops arrived in France (1st Division) in June 26, 1917.
Naval rivalry between British Empire, US and Japan and Great Depression marked the era between WWI and WWII.
The American public was strongly sympathetic to the United Kingdom and France fighting the WWII; however, there was also popular demand for neutrality. Two years after the beginning of the WWII, on December 7, 1941, Japanese attacked the US naval base Perl Harbor, which resulted in the US becoming involved in the WWII. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, Winston Churchill's first thought in anticipation of the US help was, "We have won the war”. The US declared war on the Empire of Japan on December 8. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declared war on the United States on December 11.
It was expected for the US to enter WWII in 1943; however, German declaration of war opened the door for the US to enter the conflict before.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously described the new bilateral relations between two states as “special relationship”. While Churchill was passionate to promote Anglo-American relationship, the President Truman’s Secretary of State, Dean Gooderham Acheson said: “Of course a unique relation existed between Britain and America, our common language and history insured that. But unique did not mean affectionate. We had fought England as an enemy as often as we had fought by her side as an ally”. Britain starting off as somewhat the senior partner in this relationship, had quickly found itself the junior.
In 1959 Americans went to Vietnam War, British did not want to participate. In 1982, the US supplied the UK in Falklands War; however, British argue that the Americans were practically on the other side during the Falklands War, and that their closest ally was France. Later, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United Nations General Assembly highly criticized the US, Jamaican and the RSS (Regional Security System) invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983.
In 1991, with the authorization from the UN, a coalition force from 34 countries launched the military strikes against Iraq. The US and the UK had overwhelming majority of the military forces in the Gulf War. Another crisis in the US-UK relationship blew up over Bosnia, the US State Department officials described Bosnia in 1995 as “the worst crisis with British and French since Suez Crisis”. In 1999, the US and the UK were part of the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
An opinion poll during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict found that 63% of Britons felt that the United Kingdom was tied too closely to the United States. Majorities in the UK believe the war in Iraq is unjustified, and in the UK were very critical of the government's support of US policies in Iraq. As a result, the UK currently has 4,100 troops in Iraq, comparing to 45,000 in 2003. Concerning the Afghanistan, a November 2008 poll found that 68% of Britons want their troops withdrawn within the next 12 months.
The most recent crisis in "special relationship" between two occurred when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited the US President Barack Obama in March 2009, as well as the US disagreements with the UK over Hezbollah. British were very disappointed with Presidents Obama’s treatment and with a 25 DVD box set gift to the Prime Minister Brown when visited White House. On the other side, Americans were angry on the British over the UK Foreign Office decision to talk to political wing of the Hezbollah, which the US considers terrorist organization.
Ivan Simic writes from Belgrade, Serbia - ivansimic10(at)gmail.com |
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