- '-'t JC SSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524909 Date 05 05 201_4 CONFIDENTIAL entire text NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONALS RELEASED IN FULL 0 OS-UK RELATIONSHIP ENTERS A NEW ERA BUREffU Of Summary lnHLLIGEnCf The US-UK relationship is in certain ways the most important either country has Though the relationship is clearly more vital for Britain the US also is profoundly involved and benefits greatly The US talks more often more candidly and on more subjects with the UK than with any other country But trends point toward a gradual diminution in the relative importance of the relationship to both sides HnD RESEHRCH • RSSESSffifnTS Ann RESERRCH REVIEW AUTHORITY Martin McLean Senior Reviewe The us replacement of British power throughout the world has led to exaggerations regarding th UK '·s presumed decline Despite some slippage in gross national product ranking the UK remains a poweiful and wealthy country · Nonetheless the disparity between the immense resources of the US and those of its British ally causes problems particularly in regard to British security interests and strong sense of sovereignty Entry into the European Community has allowed the OK to deal with the us as a member of a coequal economic partner But Britain's efforts to maintain close ties with the US while it intensifies relations with the Federal Republic of Germany and France may yield less than fully satisfactory relations with both the US and the EC The small and diminishing resources Britain devotes to non-NATO areas partially vitiate US-UK cooperation although both countries find good reasons for continuing this cooperation British anti-Americanism has flourished in the post-Vietnam years especially among those with access to the media Much of it is superficial and majority feeling favoring the US counteracts it But the high profile of anti-American sentiment CONFIDENTIAL Declassify OADR Cella G R Report 1125-AR July 10 1985 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524909 Date 05 05 2014 IG SSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524909 Date 05 05 2014 CONFIDENTIAL - ii in the US' closest ally is disturbing It feeds'the doctrine of the moral equivalence of the superpowers and appeals to pockets of prejudice lodged across the political spectrum No successor to Prime Minister Thatcher is likely to be as outspokenly pro-American as she has beeno Indeed if the Labor Party gains power significant difficulties in the relationship can be expected as long as party leader Neil Kinnock does not compromise on his strong anti-nuclear views In the long run it is likely that the relationship will remain close but decline in relative importance as both partners readjust their perspectives and take on new commitments CONFIDENTIAL NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONALS UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524909 Date 05 05 2014 UN LASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 CONFIDENTIAL RELEASED IN FULLj Because the US-UK relationship is often taken for granted it is especially liable to distorted assessments Excessive sentimentality can be a barrier to understanding though genuine sentiment is an important element in US-UK relations There is little doubt that the relationship is for example a special one though the British Government is adamantly opposed to this tag because it compromises the UK vis-a-vis its EC partners at least in the area of political and military cooperation But such words beg the question of how special the relationship is and discourage closer analysis- Moreover the complexity of Anglo-American ties is so immense as to defy easy characterization A reading based solely on one dimension would give a false impression of the overall relationship The difference between elite and popular attitudes on both sides adds to this complexity And despite the existence of valuable polling data on certain issues interpretation of such key issues as anti-Americanism relies to some extent on personal impressions Dimensions of the RelationshiE Defense As the two nuclear members of NATO the US and the UK share ties that transcend ordinary alliance concerns Cooperation in strategic systems is so close in fact that the British have found it virtually impossible to work in this field with the French despite their periodic desire to do so Were the us in turn to seek to cooperate in the strategic area with a third power it would likewise rely at least partially on British acquiescence Moreover as an essential staging area for us naval ground and air forces in the European theater the UK plays a major role in US strategy From a British perspective the defense of Western Europe without US participation is almost unthinkable In two other areas--intelligence-sharing and worldwide political-military cooperation--the us and the UK are by a wide margin each other's closest allies Politics Speechwriters' stress on shared democratic values notwithstanding the us and the UK have quite different political systems as is pointed out by British commentators who lament an Americanization of British politics more money more advertising more polling more mail-targeting larger parliamentary staffs The differences between these two systems have had little effect on us UK relations in the past In addition the ideological differences between say a Democratic administration in REVIEW AUTHORITY Martin Mclean Senior Reviewer CONFIDENTIAL NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONALS UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 UNC LASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 CONFIDENTIAL - 2 - Washington and a Tory one in London have meant relatively little in practical terms But this pattern may not hold in the future given the current trend toward such ideologically based international political party groupings as the socialist International Economics The US and the UK are the leading foreign investors in each other's economies US investments inevitably play a much larger role in the relatively small British economy than vice versa And the us is far and away the largest foreign investor in the UK whereas such other countries as Canada have significant slices of the US investment pi US-UK trade is relatively less important In 1984 US exports to the UK totaled $13 6 billion UK exports to the US were $12 5 billion Finally in recent years the difference between the dynamic sophisticated job-creating continent-spanning economy of the us and the slow-growth relatively backward high-unemployment resource-poor except energy British economy has become painfully evident--although the UK economy currently is expanding as fast as the US one In 1984 the growth in GNP of the US economy was almost one-half of the UK's entire GNP This difference in size and vigor commonly but generally incorrectly measured by the dollar pound ratio is keenly felt on both sides of the Atlantic Societies Piled on top of the old perception of the greater stress on class distinctions in the UK than in the us are newer notions concerning racial and ethnic diversity Immigrants from the New Commonwealth have made British cities multiracial and comparisons and contrasts with race relations in the us are common in Britain Moreover t he growing Hispanic population of the us has drawn attention in the British press and is seen as differentiating the two societies Irish immigration to both countries has affected political views and has provided one of the few sources of anglophobia in the us but the IRA's bloody deeds have done much to stem Irish-American support for it The issue of American-Irish support still rankles with the British public which has little understanding of American-style multiracial multi-ethnic politics Culture The impact of American popular culture on the UK has been enormous and--to British traditionalists--thoroughly dismaying TV movies records and the other paraphernalia of American pop culture have been a hit with many Britishers profoundly shaping their views of the us The flow of contemporary British culture to the us in contrast has been less intense though there are important exceptions like the Beatles and various television series On the elite level it is unusual to meet a Briton who is not alienated perplexed or at best amused by American popular CONFIDENTIAL NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONALS UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 UNC LASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 CONFIDENTIAL - 3 - culture It is also unusual to meet one who has devoted serious attention to the study of the US Educated Americans brought up on a diet of English literature are generally more aware of the shared cultural heritage though few Americans are students of contemporary Britain A word on language Different accents and usages are a minor irritant in relations between Americans and Britishers but the ability to communicate without usually referring to a phrase book is a powerful bonding mechanism a constant reminder of shared traditions and values And it is a major source of the tendency to take one another for granted Herein also lies one of the hidden obstacles to according the study of today's Britain its rightful place alongside the study of other major countries of longstanding US interest America in Britain's Place The replacement of British presence around the world by the US has resulted in some wounded pride among the British elite and a sense that we did it better than the Americans This is a potent source of receptivity to anti-Americanism But there are some consolations The us role has strengthened political stability conducive to worldwide British commercial interests and given the British Government an opportunity to serve as adviser to the US Many Americans for their part tend to equate the decline of the Empire with a presumed decline of the UK itself leading to an underestimation of Britain's considerable economic and military power That this perception is shared by many Britons is no assurance of its accuracy In particular the word ndeclinen is much abused One may speak of nrelative declinen in regard to the UK's standing in the global GNP sweepstakes but by other economic standards postwar Britain has enjoyed a period of prosperity and fairly steady--though unspectacular--growth Perhaps narrowingn is a better word Embassy London has noted the remarkable shift toward provincialism in the attitudes of the younger British--and a consequent failure to comprehend the demands globalipm places on the US Security and sovereignty Despite a generally compatible world view the us and the UK can differ markedly on attitudes on specific issues A typical example in the security field concerns Britain's nuclear deterrent Americans tend to see British nuclear forces as welcome reinforcements in a confrontation with the Soviets or as a diversion of British resources or as a complicating factor in superpower arms reduction negotiations For the British their CONFIDENTIAL NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONALS UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 • UNC LASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 CONFIDENTIAL - 4 - nuclear deterrent is the guarantor of sovereignty It gives them a place in superpower discussions it represents an ultimate response to Soviet attack and it ensures that the us deterrent will be coupled to the defense of Europe The British Trident submarine program and the US Strategic Defense Initiative have placed new strains on these differing aims With Polaris the British can hurt the Soviet Union badly with Trident they potentially will be able almost to wipe it out as a functioning society Thus Trident multiplies the third-country problem in US-USSR arms talks Its $11 billion price tag also short· changes British conventional forces especially the surface fleet and places more of the burden for conventional defense on US forces From the British Government perspective SDI undermines the rationale for Trident already a controversial program because a Soviet counterpart to SDI conceivably might be effective against Trident Thus SDI places the US Government inadvertently on the side of British critics of Trident Thatcher's agreed Camp David Four Points and her willingness to insert the UK into SDI contracting are aimed at gaining a British say regarding any eventual deployment As such her stance in support of research on SDI often criticized as servility to the us is actually an effort to protect British sovereignty in the face of us determination to pursue SDI without Allied support if need be sovereignty is a major British concern elsewhere as well The uneasiness felt by many Britons at the notion of Britain as the nunsinkable aircraft carriern of the US is readily exploited by the leftist press and the conduct of US troops in the UK is a touchy subject in Parliament How deeply the sensitivity reaches was illustrated in Dennis Healey's comment at a Washington NATO symposium in early 1985 when he suggested the British had no need of a US Army base in their northern FRG zone of responsibility Disputes over the extraterritorial reach of US law the pipeline issue the Laker airlines case have in recent years led to public acrimony and on occasion soured private discussions between the two governments From the UK perspective us foreign policy non-COCOM Coordinating Committee for East-West Trade Policy export controls in particular impinge on British sovereignty and access to American high technology They affect Britons who are otherwise friendly toward the us while they offer a credible justification for excluding US firms from the domestic UK market In all these questions of security and sovereignty it is the British who are reacting to US initiatives In one area alone are the tables reversed but it is a delicate one indeed The exploits of a series of disastrously well-placed Soviet spies of British nationality have raised some questions on this side of the Atlantic about UK reliability in the intelligence area CONFIDENTIAL NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONALS UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 • UNQLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 CONFIDENTIAL - Britain Between the 5 - us and Europe British entry into the EC has transformed the US-UK relationship in several ways The UK can speak to the US as a member of a coequal economic bloc and can participate in European-only security and political forums Eager not to be seen as America's Trojan horse in the EC the British have generally worked hard to prove their bona fides as good Europeans within the confines of their special brand of nationalism But EC membership is not very popular in the UK though it is with the elite and Britons still refer to nEuropen as being across the channel Most important the British are acutely aware of the dilemmas they confront as France and the FRG push for tighter integration and work bilaterally on security issues Led by Foreign Secretary Howe the current Conservative government badly wants to cooperate both trilaterally and bilaterally with France and the FRG Yet it does not wish to imperil its close relationship with the US or join in EC-wide political union The twin attractions of the US tie and links with the FRG and France are so strong that the UK is highly unlikely to forsake one for the other Rather British governments are apt to balance the two relationships serving as go-between whenever the occasion permits But conflicting US and European pressures gradually may make this stance less tenable leaving the British with fewer benefits from both ties and more difficult choices between them On the us side the economic political and cultural growth of the US south and west has intensified ties with Latin America and East Asia though this should not be exaggerated The withdrawal of British power from these areas has widened the gap in power and perspective between the US and the UK US-UK Cooperation Outside Europe The contraction of British power has narrowed areas of significant cooperation to the Persian Gulf southern· Africa the Caribbean and the Mediterranean In most cases the British contribution to joint military forces has become almost embarrassingly small giving the impression that Her Majesty's Government is more concerned with consultation than action For the US British participation adds legitimacy to joint enterprises provides valuable real estate and offers a sympathetic if at times recalcitrant interlocutor on regional issues For the British joint political ventures can win us support elsewhere but mainly consultation provides them the chance to restrain US actions--or channel them in directions as beneficial as possible to UK interests--and reinforce their status as guidance counselors to the superpower of the West Future British governments of a leftish complexion are apt to be less willing to provide such CONFIDENTIAL NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONALS UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 UNC LASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 CONFIDENTIAL - 6 - cooperation The acquiescence of a Labor government under a Neil Kinnock to US use of Diego Garcia for instance would be seriously open to question Anti-Americanism Anti-Americanism has been a factor in the US relationship with Great Britain for at least 200 years and shows no sign of disappearing Elements of pro- and anti-Americanism coexist in the media the churches academia and the political parties The Guardian The Economist and various TV specials offer copious examples of anti-Americanism often in the guise of patronizing humor much of it harmless Examples of alleged American urban decay inadequacies of social services racism imperialism and hucksterism are offered repeatedly None of this is unique to Britain some of it is no different from British knocking of other countries a good deal predates our era and much of it is aimed at a given US administration rather than at the country as a whole But the phenomenon nonetheless has several disturbing implications --The OK is not just one more country it is a special ally For anti-Americanism to flourish as it does raises questions about the long-range solidity of the relationship --While much of the explanation for the changing political attitudes of young Britons may lie in the disappearance of the Empire and entry into Europe the loss of shared memories of wartime Anglo-American cooperation also plays a role A certain historical amnesia allows anti-Americanism in recent times to encounter less resistance There is of course plenty of amnesia on this side of the Atlantic too --stress on the less appealing characteristics of American culture does not have to turn its targets into Yankee-haters to achieve its aim It is sufficient for the US to be seen as unattractive for the doctrine of the moral equivalence of the superpowers to widen its appeal --The anti-Americanism endemic in many leftist intellectual circles is well known But British Conservatives too have been and are capable of anti-American attitudes in particular when British sovereignty appears trodden upon by American might Indeed the extremely pro-American sentiments voiced by Thatcher We love the Americans may well lead to a reaction in which Tory politicians feel compelled to appeal to British nationalism None of this should disguise the fact that the great majority of Britons feel a fair degree of sympathy and understanding for the US Indeed even some leftist commentators cite US CONFIDENTIAL NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONALS UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 uNC ASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014 CONFIDENTIAL - 7 - democratic practices as a model to be followed Nonetheless the ready criticism of the US which became so prevalent in the wake of the Vietnam war continues to sap the strength of the US-UK relationship The Future Whatever Thatcher's motives it would be difficult to conceive of a British Prime Minister who would be more sympathetic toward the us Her successor--regardless of ideological hue-almost surely will be less so In particular Kinnock's clear statements that if elected he would remove US cruise missiles and nuclear-capable aircraft from the UK must be taken seriously This would be a severe blow to US-UK cooperation and might have repercussions across the entire relationship He might of course moderate his approach to win votes or find his hands tied by a coalition or arrangement• with the Liberals Interestingly Kinnock repeatedly and apparently genuinely has affirmed his personal respect and liking for the US despite his attacks on specific US policies Perhaps his and others' positions are best explained as arising out of perceived divergence in interests between the us and the UK rather than outright dislike for the US 0 From the us perspective in addition to the strategic and political benefits of the relationship with the UK the opportunity to consult with a major and compatible partner on the entire range of global diplomacy is of incalculable advantage No doubt consultations are time consuming and occasionally acrimonious but they offer to the US the possibility of airing ideas obtaining frank reactions from a sympathetic experienced observer and engaging a still significant power in joint initiatives Thus the US has a strong incentive to sustain the closeness of the relationship into the future given at least a modicum on the British side of willingness to cooperate In the longer run barring some cataclysm akin to but worse than the 1956 Suez misadventure US-UK ties are apt to remain close but they probably will decline in relative importance on the political horizons of both countries as new allegiances are added to existing ones In the distant future this continental drift may call for reviews on both sides of the utility of existing cooperation in defense intelligence and other areas Prepared by Kenneth J Dillon 632-4959 Approved by Glenn R Cella 632-9214 CONFIDENTIAL NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN NATIONALS UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No M-2011-07299 Doc No C05524908 Date 05 05 2014