Cold War Relations & the Nuclear Deterrent, 1951-1964 (AQA A Level History: Component 2: Depth study): Revision Note

Relations with the USA

President John F. Kennedy with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, Bermuda, 22nd December 1961. Cecil Stoughton, White House Photographs, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. Public domain.

The roots of the special relationship

• Britain and the United States emerged from the Second World War as close allies

  • Their wartime partnership continued into the Cold War

    • Both countries opposed the Soviet Union

  • Both helped to create the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1949

    • NATO became the main Western military alliance

• Britain saw its relationship with Washington as central to its global influence

  • Intelligence sharing and nuclear cooperation were especially important

  • British leaders wanted Britain to remain the United States' closest and most trusted ally

    • They hoped this would preserve Britain's influence in world affairs

Nuclear cooperation: broken and restored

• The United States ended nuclear cooperation with Britain in 1946

  • The McMahon Act stopped the sharing of nuclear information

  • Britain then had to develop its own nuclear bomb

    • This led Britain to become a nuclear power in its own right

• Nuclear cooperation was restored through the 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement

  • Britain regained access to American nuclear technology

  • However, this also made Britain more dependent on the United States

    • Britain's nuclear deterrent became more closely tied to American support

Macmillan, Eisenhower and Kennedy

• The 1956 Suez Crisis badly damaged relations between Britain and the United States

  • Macmillan made repairing the relationship a major priority

• Macmillan developed a strong personal relationship with President Eisenhower

  • They had worked together in North Africa during the Second World War

• From 1961, Macmillan also built a close working relationship with President Kennedy

  • Kennedy kept Macmillan informed during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

• The 1962 Nassau Agreement gave Britain access to American Polaris missiles

  • This allowed Britain to continue its nuclear deterrent

    • However, it also increased Britain's dependence on the United States

Approach: This was a confidential government policy paper presented to Macmillan’s Cabinet in 1960

It is valuable because it shows what ministers privately believed about Britain’s role in the world. However, it reflects the government’s priorities rather than public opinion.

Relations with the USSR

PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo

Cold War rivalry

• Britain remained closely aligned with the United States against the Soviet bloc throughout the period

• The Cold War divided Europe into:

  • a Western camp led by the United States

  • a Soviet camp led by the USSR

• Britain developed atomic and hydrogen bombs because of the Soviet threat

  • Nuclear weapons were intended to protect Britain and maintain its status as a major power

Seeking a thaw

• After Stalin's death in 1953, Churchill called for summit talks with Moscow

  • He hoped that direct talks between leaders could reduce Cold War tension

  • Britain took part in the Geneva Summit of 1955

    • The meeting brought together the main wartime powers

• Macmillan visited Moscow in 1959

  • He met the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev

  • Macmillan presented Britain as a possible bridge between the two superpowers

Flashpoints and a first step

• Britain played only a limited role in the most serious Cold War crises

  • It was largely a bystander during:

    • the Berlin Crisis of 1961

    • the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962

• Macmillan pressed both superpowers to agree the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963

  • Britain signed the treaty with the United States and the Soviet Union

  • The treaty banned nuclear tests:

    • in the atmosphere

    • in space

    • under water

Debates over the nuclear deterrent

Why did Britain build the bomb?

• British governments wanted an independent nuclear deterrent

  • Nuclear weapons were seen as proof that Britain remained a great power

  • They also gave Britain a place in major international discussions

• The deterrent was also meant to strengthen Britain's relationship with the United States

  • British leaders believed nuclear weapons would help preserve British influence in Washington

• Britain tested its first atomic bomb in 1952

  • It tested its first hydrogen bomb in 1957

  • Britain became the third country in the world to develop nuclear weapons

• The 1957 Sandys Defence White Paper made nuclear deterrence the centre of British defence

  • It cut conventional forces and planned the end of National Service to save money

Independent or dependent?

• Developing British missile systems was extremely expensive

  • The Blue Streak missile was cancelled in 1960

  • The American Skybolt missile was then intended to replace it

    • However, the United States cancelled Skybolt in 1962

• The Nassau Agreement of 1962 gave Britain American Polaris missiles

  • The nuclear warheads remained British

  • The missiles used to deliver them were American

• Critics argued that Britain's deterrent was no longer fully independent

  • Britain still controlled its own warheads

  • However, it depended on American missile technology

The campaign against the bomb

• The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was founded in 1958

  • It called for Britain to give up its nuclear weapons on its own

    • This policy was known as unilateral nuclear disarmament

• CND became one of Britain's largest protest movements

  • Thousands of people joined the annual Aldermaston marches

• The debate divided supporters of unilateral and multilateral disarmament

  • Unilateralists wanted Britain to give up the bomb without waiting for other countries

  • Supporters of multilateral disarmament wanted nuclear powers to reduce their weapons through international agreement

• In 1960 the Labour Party conference voted for unilateral disarmament against Gaitskell's wishes

  • Gaitskell won the vote back at the 1961 conference

Approach: Gaitskell was defending his leadership against members of his own party who supported unilateral nuclear disarmament. The speech is useful for showing the strength of the disagreement inside Labour. However, it reflects Gaitskell’s own position rather than providing a neutral account of defence policy. Compare it with evidence produced by CND

The Korean War

Why Korea was divided

• Korea had been controlled by Japan until the end of the Second World War

• After Japan's defeat in 1945, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel

  • The Soviet Union occupied the north of the parallel

  • The United States occupied the south of the parallel

• Rival governments were established in 1948

  • North Korea became communist

  • South Korea became anti-communist

The outbreak of war

• North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950

  • North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel, beginning the Korean War

  • China later entered the war on the side of North Korea

    • Chinese forces intervened after United Nations (UN) troops advanced close to the Chinese border

• The conflict became the first major armed clash of the Cold War

Britain joined the war

• Britain supported the United Nations response to the invasion

  • It sent troops as part of a UN force led by the United States

• Clement Attlee's Labour government committed British forces in 1950

  • Churchill continued Britain's involvement after returning to power in 1951

• British troops fought at the Imjin River in 1951

  • They helped to slow a major Chinese advance

  • The battle became one of the best-known British actions of the war

What the war showed

• Britain followed the American lead in resisting communism

  • This strengthened the Cold War partnership between Britain and the United States

• The war led to a costly rearmament programme

  • Higher defence spending increased pressure on Britain's economy

• Britain fought under a United Nations banner

  • In practice, the war was directed mainly by the United States

• Fighting ended with an armistice in 1953

  • The border remained close to the 38th parallel

    • This was roughly where the war had begun

How far did Britain remain a great power in the Cold War?

• This question compares the evidence that Britain still had major international influence with the evidence that its power was declining

  • It also considers Britain's growing dependence on the United States

• Some key evidence for each side is detailed below

The case that Britain remained a great power

• Britain had its own nuclear deterrent

  • It had developed both atomic and hydrogen bombs

  • This allowed Britain to claim a place among the world's leading military powers

• Britain kept a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council

  • This gave it an important role in international decision-making

• The special relationship gave Britain influence in Washington

  • British leaders had close links with American presidents

  • Intelligence and nuclear cooperation strengthened the relationship

• Britain still had worldwide military commitments

  • It also remained at the centre of a large empire and Commonwealth

• Britain continued to take part in major international diplomacy

  • Summit diplomacy helped Britain remain involved in Cold War negotiations

  • The 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty showed Britain helping to shape an international agreement

The case that Britain was a declining power

• Britain's nuclear deterrent became increasingly dependent on the United States

  • Blue Streak and Skybolt were cancelled

  • Britain then relied on American Polaris missiles

• The 1956 Suez Crisis exposed the limits of British power

  • Britain could not continue military action without American support

• Economic weakness made Britain's worldwide commitments difficult to afford

  • Defence spending placed heavy pressure on the economy

• In Korea, Britain fought under American leadership

  • This showed that Washington, rather than London, now led the Western alliance

• The United States and the Soviet Union had become two superpowers

  • Their military and economic strength overshadowed older powers such as Britain