Research On US-UK Defense Cooperation (1957-1962)

The comprehensive cooperation between the United States and Britain during the Second World War greatly affected the war process and the reconstruction of the post-war world order.And defense cooperation between the two countries also continued during the Cold War,but the two defense cooperation relations also experienced a course of "frustration".At the beginning of the Cold War,the U.S.tried to dominate the world with absolute superiority based on its comprehensive national strength.It did not realize the essential role the western allies especially the U.K.played in the Cold War to fight against the Soviet Union,which resulted in the refusion to establish a close defense relationship with the United Kingdom.However,with the strengthening of the military and political power of the Soviet Union,the external threats led by the Soviet Union suddenly increased in the late 1950 s and early 1960 s,and the United States in the Cold War was struggling.In respond to this,the U.S.government determined to actively promote the cooperation with western allies.Meanwhile,significant achievements the British government gained under the independent development of defense forces during this period made a great difference,moreover,these two governments reached to similar defense strategies.Therefore,strengthening defense relationship with Britain came to American' s preferred choice.Under the joint promotion of the leaders of the two countries,the U.S.and the U.K.gradually established a comprehensive and full defense cooperative relationship during this period.It can be said that the defense cooperation during this period is the climax of defense cooperation between the two countries during the Cold War.This paper deeply studies several key nodes of Anglo-American defense cooperation during this period,illustrates the development process of the defense partnership and explains "winning and losing" of the defense cooperation.Through this research,it is found that the cooperation between the two countries in this period had distinctive characteristics: the distribution of defense responsibilities was reasonable,both of them maintained a higher degree of trust,the cooperation between the two countries tends to be normalized and institutionalized,and the mutual defense cooperation was exemplary and radiative to other western allies.Despite of this,due to the changes in the international situation and the later differences in the defense policies of the two countries,their defense relationship was gradually cold after the Nassau Conference in 1962,as a result,the new defense relationship the two countries tried to establish ended in failure.