Multilateral Force And Anglo-American Relations

Brtain has been the most important ally of the United States since the World Warâ…¡. In the U.S. global strategy, Britain played a more important role than the other allies. It was known as the Anglo-American special relationship. To a certain extent, it was expressed in terms of military cooperation between the two countries. Nuclear cooperation was the most important part of the military cooperation.Anglo-American nuclear cooperation began during the World Warâ…¡, after which it declined gradually. Then it took a dramatic turn by the continuous consultations between the two countries, even to a climax. So, nuclear cooperation between two countries showed the situation of ups and downs. Multilateral Force was a typical case of this situation. Thus, it would help us understand the process and substance of Anglo-American special relationship by researching the Multilateral Force.This dissertation consists of three parts:preface, main content and conclusion.The preface firstly points out the motivation and significance, then summarizes domestic and overseas research points of views, which prepare the way for following writing, and later brings forward the methods, as well as the points of focus, difficulty and innovation.The first part details the formation of the postwar Anglo-American special relationship and the cooperation and the contradiction on the right of nuclear control between Britain and America. This chapter analyzes the reasons for the formation of the postwar Anglo-American special relationship and reviews the development process. Then it explores the evolution of U.S. nuclear strategy and Global Strategy Paper born in the 1950s. Finally, according to the rise and fall of McMahon Act, the chapter explains the U.S. nuclear policy to Britain.The second part introduces the strategic transformation of the United States and the proposition of Multilateral Force. This chapter analyzes the strategic transformation from Massive Reliation Strategy to Strategy of Flexible Response and how to coordinate with the European allies. Meanwhile, it introduces the Fourth Branch of Nuclear Power during the Eisenhower Administration and Multilateral Force during the Kennedy Administration. The third part demontrates the episode of Multilateral Force, that is, Skybolt Crisis.This chapter explores the origin, outbreak, results and the impact on the Anglo-American relations of Sky bolt Crisis. In addition, the key point of this chapter lies in the game of ofference Polaris instead of Skybolt to Britain between pro-European faction and pro-British faction. This is also a major difficulty in this chapter.The fourth part shows the bankruptcy of Multilateral Force. This chapter explains the response of NATO allies after Nassau Meeting, and the end of Multilateral Force. After Nassau Meeting, president Kennedy sent a letter to Charles De Gaule, in which he proposed that the United States can provide Polaris to French with the same conditions agreed with the United Kingdom, but De Gaulle refused. At the same time, De Gaulle refused Britain to join in the EEC and participate in prohibited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which makes the Multilateral Force suffer a setback. In addition, Britain proposed Atlantic Nuclear Force to compete with the United States. In this situation, the United States had to re-evaluate Multilateral Force and gave up.The part of conclusion summarizes the main points of the body and evaluates Multilateral Force and the impact on Anglo-American of it.