“THE CANCELLATION OF SKYBOLT CAUSED A SHARPENING OF TENSIONS BETWEEN THE TWO GOVERNMENTS THAT THREATENED TO UNFASTEN THE TIES OF THE ‘SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP’”
As the world stood on the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, US President John F Kennedy faced conflicting pressures from civilian and military officials on his course of action. Even when the president reached decisions he needed reassurance they were the right policy to pursue. Kennedy found that support in his transatlantic telephone calls to British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
The British premier did not perform an active role in the decision-making process. Kennedy had already resolved to impose a naval blockade preventing Soviet vessels transporting nuclear missiles to Cuba before he assured Macmillan “we can and should be in the closest touch”.
Translated into action, those words meant that the president would keep the PM informed without actually wanting his advice. As the British Ambassador to Washington, David Ormsby-Gore, mused: “I can’t honestly think of anything said from London that changed the US action.”
Macmillan was nonetheless a trusted confidante who acted as a sounding board to a president wrestling with his own political calculus throughout the crisis. Their bond strengthened the ‘Special Relationship’ between their
