2020/07/19 by Steve Marsh · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Irish and British Studies #Political and Economic history of UK and US #Scottish History and National Identity
paper · doi:10.1080/13619462.2020.1785292
openalex publication_date 2020/07/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Conservative Heath government dropped the term special relationship from the vernacular of Anglo-American relations. Britain’s usefulness to the US was in question, too, epitomised in the April 1975 Wall Street Journal headline of ‘Goodbye Great Britain’. Yet the succeeding Wilson and Callaghan Labour governments were determined to revive Anglo-American relations. This article argues they achieved more to this end than hitherto acknowledged through how they managed Anglo-American relations. Particular attention is drawn to resetting the tone of relations, strategies of engagement of American officials to control fallout from British retrenchment and a discursive modernisation of the special relationship.