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The Johnson Administration and the British Labour Government: Vietnam, the Pound and East of Suez

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

John Dumbrell
John Dumbrell
Affiliation:
lecturer in American Studies, University of Keele, Keele, ST5 5BG, England.
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Extract

Recent accounts of Anglo-American relations in the mid-1960s revolve around the supposed existence of “deals” made between President Lyndon Johnson and Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The memoir of Edward Short, Wilson's Chief Whip, goes so far as to describe a “deal” done before the 1964 general election, whereby the US would support the pound in return for an undertaking not to devalue if a Labour Government were to be returned. Clive Ponting, Philip Ziegler and Ben Pimlott all accept that a “deal” or “secret agreement” — Pimlott's phrase — had been made by the early summer of 1965. The US would organise a multilateral rescue for the sinking pound, in return for British policies of deflation at home, retention of overseas military commitments, and (limited) support for the Vietnam war. The 1965 “deal” appears to have been reinforced during the sterling crisis of July 1966, only to come adrift in 1967. Wilson's own account has him rejecting the excessive demands accompanying an American sterling rescue in 1967, and devaluing as — in effect — an assertion of British sovereignty.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , August 1996 , pp. 211 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 Short, Edward, Whip to Wilson: The Crucial Years of the Labour Government (London: MacDonald, 1989), 117Google Scholar. See also Ziegler, Philip, Wilson: The Authorised Life (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1993), 191Google Scholar.

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5 National Security File (NSF): Memos to the President from McGeorge Bundy, June 1965, box 12, 28 June, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Austin, Texas. All subsequent document and oral history citations relate to material available at the Johnson Presidential Library.

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11 NSF: Country File (CF): UK, box 206, Bruce cable, “Elections note,” Oct. 5–12, 1964; Ziegler, 224.

12 NSF: CF: UK, box 213, McGeorge Bundy to Johnson, 1 March 1964.

13 Ibid., “PM Wilson Visit Briefing Book 12/64.”

14 Ibid., box 206, Rusk to Johnson, 28 Feb. 1964.

15 Papers of George Ball, box 1, telecon (McGrory-Ball), 9 Dec. 1964.

16 NSF: CF: UK: box 207, Klein to McGeorge Bundy, 23 March 1965.

17 Ibid., box 209, incoming telegram, 16 Dec. 1965.

18 Ibid., box 213, memo of conversation (Wilson and McNamara), 5 March 1964.

19 Ibid., box 216, Bruce telegram to Johnson, 26 Sept. 1966.

20 Ibid., box 213, Rusk to Johnson, 28 Feb. 1964.

21 Ibid., box 215, Klein to McGeorge Bundy, 1 June 1965.

22 NSF: Name File (Neustadt), box 7, Neustadt to McGeorge Bundy, 9 Aug. 1965.

23 NSF: CF: UK, box 216, “Wilson Briefing Book 7/29/66: British Attitudes on Vietnam.”

24 NSF: National Security Council (NSC) Meetings File, box 2, Bromley Smith, “Summary Notes of 587th NSC Meeting,” 5 June 1968.

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26 The Castle Diaries, 147; Bruce, Oral History, 8. (Bruce also, however, noted LBJ's “antipathy” to Wilson. See Ellis, “British Opposition to the Vietnam War,” 4).

27 Pimlott, 387.

28 Papers of George Ball, box 1, telecon (Reston-Ball), 16 Oct. 1964.

29 NSF: Files of McGeorge Bundy, box 18/19, “Memorandum for the Record,” 31 March 1965; Papers of George Ball, box 1, telecon (Johnson-Ball), 6 March 1965. See also Hitchens, C., “Say What You Will About Harold ”, London Review of Books, 2 12 1993, 14Google Scholar.

30 NSF: CF: UK, box 216, “Background Paper: British Economy” (Brown visit, 10/14/66).

31 E. F. Fried, Oral History, 36.

32 NSF: CF: UK, box 215, CIA Office of National Estimates, “Britain's Economy and its Implications”, 1 July 1965.

33 Ibid., box 216, “Wilson Briefing Book 7/29/66: British Attitudes on Vietnam.”

34 Ibid., W. Rostow to Johnson, 28 July 1966.

35 Ibid., box 209, McGeorge Bundy to Burke Trend, 3 Nov. 1965. On Skybolt, see Neustadt, R. E., Alliance Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970)Google Scholar.

36 NSF: CF: UK, box 209, airgram, London Embassy to State Department, 23 May 1966.

37 Ibid.

38 Ibid., box 208, memo of conversation (Rusk-Dean), 3 June 1965.

39 Ibid., box 213, memo of conversation (McNamara-Wilson), 5 March 1964.

40 NSF: NSC Meetings File, box 2, Bromley Smith, “Summary Notes of 587th NSC Meeting”, 5 June 1968.

41 Ibid., incoming cable to State Department, 5 June 1968 (original in capitals).

42 NSF: CF: UK, box 213, Rusk to Johnson, 28 Feb. 1964.

43 Ibid., boxes 211/12, London Embassy to State Department, received 5 June 1968.

44 See Dobson, “The Years of Transition”, 250–56.

45 NSF: CF: UK, boxes 211/12, Bruce to Secretary of State, 8 May 1967.

46 NSF: NSC Meetings File, box 2, Bromley Smith, “Summary Notes of 587th NSC Meeting,” 5 June 1968.

47 NSF: CF: UK, box 215, Ball, “British Sterling Crisis: 1965,” (undated).

48 Files of Walt W. Rostow, boxes 12/13, Bator to Johnson, 21 July 1966.

49 NSF: CF: UK, box 216, Bator to Johnson, 1 June 1967.

50 Ibid.

51 British Ambassador Patrick Dean informed Secretary Rusk that the “UK was naturally happy to sell the bombs but preferred that in the future it not be said that they were to be used in Vietnam” (NSF: CF: UK, box 208, “memo of conversation”: Dean-Rusk, 22 June, 1965). See also Campbell, Duncan, The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier (London: Paladin, 1986), 142Google Scholar (on SAS involvement); Hannah, Norman B., The Key to Failure: Laos and the Vietnam War (Lanham: Madison Books, 1987), 195Google Scholar; and Richelson, Jeffrey T. and Ball, Desmond, The Ties That Bind (London: Unwin Hyman, 1990)Google Scholar, (on intelligence cooperation).

52 Larsen, S. R. and Collins, J. L., Allied Participation in Vietnam (Washington DC: Department of the Army, 1975), 2Google Scholar.

53 See Dumbrell, , Making of US Foreign Policy, 216Google Scholar; Wilson, , The Labour Government, 264Google Scholar; Ponting, 47–56, 220; The Castle Diaries, 282.

54 See Wilson, , The Labour Government, 248Google Scholar; Benn, Tony, Out of the Wilderness: Diaries, 1963–1967 (London: Hutchinson, 1987), 440Google Scholar.

55 NSF: Memos to the President: W. W. Rostow, Vol. 6, box 8, 17 June 1966.

56 NSF: Files of Walt W. Rostow, boxes 12/13, Bruce to State Department, 4 July 1966 (original in capitals).

57 NSF: CF: UK, box 209, Bruce to State Department, 2 June 1966 (original in capitals).

58 See, e.g., NSF: Files of McGeorge Bundy, boxes 17/18, “Memorandum for the Record”: Bundy: “It might well be very embarrassing for the British if they should give assurances one week which they had to give back a week later…” (on consultation over US military intentions).

59 NSF: Memos to the President: McGeorge Bundy, Vols. 5–8, box 2, Bundy to Johnson, 15 Dec. 1964 (on appointment of James Rafferty to handle the “third country problem”); Bruce, Oral History, 23–4.

60 NSF: CF: UK, box 215/16, Bator memo, “Agenda: Preparation for Trend”, 28 July 1965.

61 Ibid., Bundy to Johnson, 28 July 1965.

62 NSF: Memos to the President: McGeorge Bundy, Vols. 8–13, box 3, Bundy to Johnson, 2 Aug. 1965.

63 NSF: CF: UK, box 209, State Department Director of Intelligence and Research to Rusk, 15 July 1966.

64 Ibid., boxes 215/16, “Briefing Book 7/29/66.”

65 The Commonwealth mission was described as “stillborn” in NSF: CF: Vietnam, boxes 196/7, Benjamin Read to McGeorge Bundy, 2 Aug. 1965. See also, on “Phase A/Phase B,” Brown, George, In My Way (London: Gollancz, 1971), 145–66Google Scholar; Bruce, Oral History, 26–30; William Bundy, Oral History, 20–23; Cooper, , The Lost Crusade, 358–9Google Scholar; and Wilson, , The Labour Government, 345–66Google Scholar. See also Herring, George C., ed., The Secret Diplomacy of the Vietnam War: The negotiating Volumes of the Pentagon Papers (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983), 372–6, 390–475Google Scholar (on British involvement in various Vietnam peace initiatives).

66 NSF: CF: UK, boxes 211/12, Humphrey to Johnson, 4 April 1967.

67 See Bruce, Oral History, p. 24. According to Wilson (The Labour Government, 80), LBJ told him in February 1965; “I won't tell you how to run Malaysia and you don't tell us how to run Vietnam.”

68 Papers of George Ball, box 1, telecon (Solomon-Ball), 27 July 1965; Ibid., telecon (Fowler-Ball), 29 1965. (“Bob” is Robert McNamara).

69 NSF: CF: UK, box 209, Fowler to Johnson, 14 July 1966.

70 Ibid., box 215, Fowler to Johnson (handwritten, undated).

71 As note 47 (above).

72 NSF: CF: UK, box 206, Cline to Director of Central Intelligence (undated).

73 Ibid., box 207, O. Eckerstein to G. Ackley (summarising Heller's view), 11 June 1965.

74 Ibid., box 208, Bruce to State Department, received 26 July 1965.

75 Ibid., boxes 211.12, Heller to Johnson, 9 Sept. 1967.

76 Ibid., box 215, Ackley to Johnson (summarising views of Fowler, Ball, Bundy and Martin), 29 July 1965.

77 Ibid., Ackley to M. Bundy, 29 July 196;. See also Cairncross, A. and Eichengreen, B., Sterling in Decline: The Devaluations of 1931,1949 and 1967 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), 178Google Scholar.

78 See note 3 (above). Wilson, p. 453, described Pierre–Paul Schweitzer (IMF Secretary-General) as “under American as well as British pressure” to ease the conditions for a multilateral rescue. See also Solomon, Robert. The International Monetary System, 1945–1976 (New York: Harper and Row, 1977), 91–99Google Scholar.

79 NSF: CF: UK, boxes 211/12, Rostow to Johnson, 13 Nov. 1967.

80 White House Central File: Confidential File: FO 321, Callaghan to Fowler, 10 Nov. 1967 (cited in Ponting, 291).

81 NSF: CF: UK, boxes 211/12, “Notes on the President's Meeting with the Leadership,” 19 Nov. 1967.

82 NSF: File of W. W. Rostow, box 3, “Notes on the President's Meeting with the Leadership,” 19 Nov. 1967.

83 Ibid.

84 Cabinet Papers, box 11, “Minutes of Cabinet Meeting Nov. 20, 1967.”

85 NSF: CF: UK, boxes 211/12, Rostow to Johnston, 22 Nov. 1967.

86 WHCF: Confidential File: Name File, box 152, E. Goldstein to Johnson, 29 Jan. 1968.

87 Handwriting File, box, “British Budget.”

88 NSF: CF: UK, box 206, Heller to Johnson, 9 Nov. 1964.

89 Ibid., box 215, McGeorge Bundy to Johnson, 16 Dec. 1965.

90 Ibid., box 213, “Memo of conversation” (Wilson–McNamara), 5 March 1964.

91 Ibid., box 209, Bator to Johnson, 17 Nov. 1965.

92 Ibid., box 215, Klein to M. Bundy, 1 June 1965.

93 Ibid., Rusk to Johnson (undated): “Visit of P.M. Wilson.”

94 Ibid., M. Bundy to Johnson, 16 Dec. 1965.

95 Papers of George Ball, box 1, telecon (Bator–Ball), 27 July 1965.

96 Ibid., (Fowler–Ball), 29 July 1965.

97 Ibid., (Bundy–Ball), 29 July 1965.

98 NSF: CF: UK, box 216, Bator to Johnson (report on Wilson's meeting with LBJ), 29 July 1966.

99 Ibid., box 209, Fowler to Johnson, 18 July 1966.

100 Ibid., Ball to Johnson, 22 July 1966.

101 WHCF: Confidential File, box 12, Bruce to State Department, 17 June 1967.

102 NSF: CF: UK, box 216, Rusk to Johnson, 31 May 1967.

103 Ibid., “Background Paper for Mr. Walt Rostow: US Overseas Military Economies,” Feb. 1967.

104 Diary Backup, box 90, Rusk to Johnson, 3 Feb. 1968.

105 NSF: CF: UK, box 209, Hughes to Rusk, 27 July 1966.

106 Ibid., box 216, Bator to Johnson (on LBJ's meeting with Wilson), 29 July 1966.

107 Heren, L., No Hail, No Farewell (London: Harper and Row, 1970), 231Google Scholar.