Divinely sanctioned: The Anglo-American cold war alliance and the defence of western civilization and christianity, 1945-48

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 35, Issue 3, 2000, Pages

  Kirby, Dianne ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 8744275568     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002200940003500304     Document Type: Review

References (128)

1. Ritchie Ovendale, The English-speaking Alliance: Britain, the United States, the Dominions and the Cold War 1945-51 (London 1985), 21
2. N. Beloff, The General Says No (Harmondsworth 1963);
3. A. Nutting, Europe W ill Not Wait (London 1960).
4. Critical stance also adopted by M. Charlton, The Price of Victory (London 1983),
5. and R. Mayne, The Recovery of Europe (London 1970)
6. A. Bullock, Ernest Bevin, Vol. III: Foreign Secretary (Oxford 1983)
7. J. Charmley, 'Duff Cooper and Western European Union, 1944-7', Review of International Studies, vol. II, 1985, 53-63
8. J. Charmley, Duff Cooper (London 1986)
9. D. Dilks, 'The British View of Security' in O. Riste (ed.), Western Security, the Formative Years (New York 1985), 25-55
10. F.K. Roberts, 'Ernest Bevin as Foreign Secretary' in R. Ovendale (ed.), The Foreign Policy of the Labour Governments, 1945-51 (Leicester 1984)
11. As J.W. Young points out in his survey of the literature in Britain and European Unity, 1945-1992 (London 1993)
12. this approach is also usual in general histories such as K. Middlemas, Power, Competition and the State, Vol. I. Britain in Search of Balance, 1940-61 (London 1986), 160;
13. A. Sked and C. Cook, Postwar Britain (New York 1982), 54-6;
14. K.O. Morgan, Labour in Power (Oxford 1985), 276
15. John Charmley, Churchill's Grand Alliance: The Anglo-American Special Relationship 1940-57 (London 1 995), 236;
16. John Kent, 'The British Empire and the Origins of the Cold War, 1944-9' in Anne Deighton (ed.), Britain and the First Cold War (New York 1990), 165-83, adopts the same position: 'The overriding aim until 1949 was the re-establishment of Britain as a world power equal to and independent of both the United States and the Soviet Union, an aspiration which reflected the Foreign Office view that British weakness was a temporary rather than a permanent phenomenon.'
17. A. Shlaim, Britain and the Origins of European Unity (Reading 1978), 114-42;
18. G. Warner, 'The Labour Governments and the Unity of Western Europe' in R. Ovendale, (ed.), The Foreign Policy of the British Labour Governments 1945-51 (Leicester 1984), 64-5, 79-80
19. J.L. Gaddis, 'The US and the question of a sphere of influence in Europe' in Riste (ed.), Western Security, op. cit., 78;
20. cited in Young, Britain and European Unity, op. cit., 38
21. This is evident from Truman's campaign on behalf of the 1946 British Loan, regardless of the opposition. See Terry Anderson, The United States, Great Britain and the Cold War, 1944-47 (Columbia 1981), 131
22. Emphasis added. Quoted in A.P. Dobson, Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century (London 1995), 98-9
23. Dobson, Anglo-American Relations, op. cit., 102
24. Anne Deighton, The Impossible Peace: Britain, the Division of Germany, and the Origins of the Cold War (Oxford 1990), 6-7
25. Anderson, The United States, Great Briain and the Cold War, op. cit.;
26. Robert M. Hathaway, Ambiguous Partnership: Britain and America, 1944-47 (New York 1981). The point is also made in Bullock, Bevin, op. cit., esp. 347-8, 394
27. Washington Embassy to Ernest Bevin, 15 August 1946; T 236/479
28. Quoted in Caroline Anstey, 'The Projection of British Socialism: Foreign Office Publicity and American Opinion, 1945-50', Journal of Contemporary History, 19, 3 (July 1984), 435
29. September 1946, 30. Same theme expressed in Time, 4 November 1946, 34-5 and United States News, 6 September 1946, 19. Quoted in Anderson, The United States, Great Britain and the Cold War, op. cit., 141
30. Thomas G. Paterson, Meeting the Communist Threat: Truman to Reagan (Oxford 1988), 35-53
31. Anstey, 'The Projection of British Socialism', op. cit., 418
32. Henry Kissinger, White House Years (Boston 1979), 58-9
33. R.B. Fowler and A.D. Hertzke, Religion and Politics in America: Faith, Culture and Strategic Choices (Oxford 1995), 5
34. Another use was to encourage dissent behind the Iron Curtain. See D. Kirby, 'Truman's Holy Alliance: The President, the Pope and the Origins of the Cold War', Borderlines: Studies in American Culture, 4, 1 (1997), and idem, Church, State and Propaganda: The Archbishop of York and International Relations, a Political Study of Cyril Forster Garbett, 1942-55 (Hull 1999)
35. The question of American 'exceptionalism' suggested here remains highly contentious, but there is an abundance of literature confirming that it remains significant in the way in which America sees itself and it is, therefore, an important element in presentation, if not in implementation, of foreign policy. See J. Lepgold and Timothy McKeown, 'Is American Foreign Policy Exceptional? An Empirical Analysis', Political Science Quarterly, 110, 3 (1995)
36. Maclennan, June 1944, INF 1 416; R.R. Williams, 12 January 1945; INF 1 953. Emphasis in original
37. Grubb to David Scott, FO, 26 January 1945; INF 1 953
38. Douglas to Perowne, 30 October 1943;FO 370 858. Loxley, Minute, 4 November 1943; FO 370 858
39. Memorandum, Director of Religions Division, June 1944; INF 1 416
40. Kirby, 'Truman's Holy Alliance', op. cit
41. Fraser F. Harbutt, 'British Influence: Winston Churchill and the Iron Curtain Speech' in T.G. Paterson and R.J. McMahon (eds), The Origins of the Cold War (Lexington 1991), 156-78
42. 'Churchill at Palm Beach, 24 February 1946', Note by Myron C. Taylor, Taylor Papers, Truman Library
43. Interestingly, Churchill used religious imagery in advising Bevin on the importance of the 'special relationship' in November 1945 in a letter marked 'Most Secret': 'Whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder. . . . The future of the world depends upon the fraternal association of Great Britain and the Commonwealth with the United States. With that, there can be no war. Without it, there can be no peace. . . . What we may be able to achieve is, in fact, Salvation for ourselves, and the means of procuring Salvation for the world.' Churchill to Bevin, 13 November 1945; FO 800 513
44. Truman to Taylor, 20 April 1946, 1946 Taylor Reports, Truman Library
45. FO 371 56885, 23 April 1946
46. FO 371 56885, 24 April 1946
47. FO 371 56885, 14 May 1946
48. Bevin's prejudice is mentioned by Gladwyn Jebb, The Memoirs of Lord Gladwyn (London 1972), 176-7
49. Taylor to Truman, 11 June 1946, WHCF Box 44, Truman Papers. Emphasis in original
50. Lewis A. Erenberg and Susan E. Hirsch (eds), The War in American Culture: Society and Consciousness during World War II (Chicago 1996)
51. See, for example, Nichols to Sargent, 3 August 1946; FO 371 56787
52. M.P. Leffler, 'From the Truman Doctrine to the Carter Doctrine: Lessons and Dilemmas of the Cold War', Diplomatic History, VI (Fall 1983), 247-54
53. Truman to Pius XII, 6 August 1947, full correspondence published in New York Times, 29 August 1947, 1 and 11
54. Parsons's Diary, 17 October 1947, Parsons Papers, Truman Library
55. Oliver Harvey, Superintending Under-Secretary of the German Department, to Osborne, Minister to the Vatican, 26 February 1947; FO 371 67917
56. 'Effect of Our External Position on Our Foreign Policy', 12 February 1947; FO 371 62420 UE678/176/53
57. Inverchapel to FO, 13 March and 23 August 1947, Foreign Office Records, F0371/67035/R3482 and 61056/AN2982
58. John Saville, The Politics of Continuity: British Foreign Policy and the Labour Government 1945-46 (London 1993), 2
59. Dianne Kirby, 'Harry Truman and Pius XII: Promoting Holy War Behind the Iron Curtain', paper delivered to the Annual Conference of the British Association of American Studies, Glasgow University, 27 April 1999
60. Taylor to Truman, 12 November 1 947, WHCF Box 46, Truman papers, Truman Library
61. Garbett Travel Diary, 'Visit to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia October-November 1947'; Garbett Papers, York Minster Library
62. Peake to Garbett, 5 April 1948; Garbett Papers
63. See Ivone Kirkpatrick, The Soviet Campaign against this Country', 22 May 1946; FO 930 488
64. Brimelow, minute, 9 September 1946; FO 371 56835
65. Dame Beatrice Lyall to Fisher, 21 October 1946; Fisher Papers (Lambeth Palace), vol. 63, 10. Fisher to Lyall, 7 November 1946, vol. 63, 13
66. Anglican Outlook (Canada) December 1946; quoted in Religion and the People, a small circulation left-wing Anglican newsletter, February 1947
67. Anstey, 'The Projection of British Socialism', op. cit
68. Sir Charles Nichols to Orme Sargent, 3 August 1946; FO 371 66362
69. Lambert, minute, 29 November 1946; FO 371 66362
70. Anstey, 'The Projection of British Socialism', op. cit., 420, 428
71. John Saville, 'Ernest Bevin and the Cold War', Socialist Register (Manchester 1984), 95
72. Bell to Fisher, 31 March 1950; Papers of the Church of England Council on Foreign Relations, Lambeth Palace
73. Saville, The Politics of Continuity, op. cit., 81-111
74. Churchill Speeches, vol. 7, 7483-8; 'The Official Church Lines Up', Religion & the People, June 1947
75. Indicative of the connection in Bevin's mind between religion and politics was a memorable action he initiated for the Bristol Right-to-Work Committee. To enlist the support of local clergy he organized a demonstration of the unemployed who one Sunday in November 1908 marched into Bristol cathedral and stood a silent reproof of the consequences of that state. In 1909, during a political crisis in his life, Bevin briefly contemplated becoming a missionary, highlighting the strength of the ties between his religious and political interests. Peter Weiler, Ernest Bevin (Manchester 1993), 6-7
76. On 14 October 1945 it was noted in the Foreign Office that Russian 'intransigence' was greatly helping the British attempts to bring the USA to the British way of thinking. FO 37 1/44538/AN 3159. Joseph E. Davies, a former American ambassador to Moscow and a sympathetic interpreter of the Soviet Union, wrote in a private letter of 8 January 1946: 'I know of no institution that needs a high pressure "public relations" organization as much as the USSR. They do not seem to get their case across, even when, as it happens sometimes, they have a good case.' Quoted in J.L. Gaddis, 'The Insecurities of Victory: The United States and the Perception of the Soviet Threat after World War II' in M.J. Lacey (ed.), The Truman Presidency (Cambridge 1989), 255, note 68
77. Robert A. Pollard, The National Security State Reconsidered: Truman and Economic Containment, 1945-1950' in Lacey, The Truman Presidency, op. cit., 209-10
78. Washington Embassy to Foreign Office, 'Weekly Political Summary', 4 September 1947; FO 371/61056 AN 3069/40/45. For the importance of economic power in foreign policy-making see Pollard, 'The National Security State Reconsidered', op. cit., 205-34
79. FO 371/61038 AN 3852/17/45
80. J. Balfour to M. Wright; FO 371 61003 AN 2922/1/45
81. Michael Nelson, The BBC External Services and the Cold War', paper delivered to the Institute of Contemporary British History Summer School on The Cold War', July 1997
82. Foreign Relations of the United States (henceforth FRUS), vol, III, Department of State publication, Washington DC 1948, 1113
83. FO 371 66371 N 9549
84. Lyn Smith, 'Covert British Propaganda: The Information Research Department 1947-1977', Journal of International Studies, 9, 1(1986), 69
85. FRUS 1948 (III), 2. Gallman telegram 6585, 17 December 1947
86. FRUS 1947 (2), 815-16, Anglo-US-French conversations, British memorandum of conversation, Top Secret, undated
87. Minutes of meeting, COI Overseas Production Conference, commenting on Information Officers' Conference October 1946, OP(46)29. INF 12/61
88. 'The First Aim of British Foreign Policy', 4 January 1948, CP(48)6, CAB 129/23. Emphasis added
89. Bradford Perkins, 'Unequal Partners: The Truman Administration and Great Britain' in William Roger Louis and Hedley Bull (eds), The 'Special Relationship': Anglo-American Relations Since 1945 (Oxford 1986), 43
90. FRUS 1948 (III), 5
91. Ovendale, The English-speaking Alliance, op. cit., 65
92. FRUS 1948 (III), 6-7, Memorandum by the Director of the Office of European Affairs (Hickerson) to the Secretary of State
93. Bullock, Ernest Bevin, op. cit., 351
94. M. Howard, Introduction to Riste (ed.), Western Security, op. cit., 12 and 17; cited in Young, Britain and European Unity, op. cit., 15-16
95. C.F.A. Warner to Mayhew and Sargent, 1 January 1948; FO 953 128
96. In an interview with the journalist James Oliver, 18 July 1995, Lord Mayhew admitted that the use of the term 'third force' was a tactical ploy to counter left-wing opposition should IRD's operations be disclosed; cited in Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, Britain's Secret Propaganda War (Stroud 1998), 27
97. Cited in Wayne Knight, 'Labourite Britain: America's "Sure Friend"? The Anglo-Soviet Treaty Issue, 1947', Diplomatic History, 7 (Fall 1983), 270-2
98. Perkins, 'Unequal Partners', op. cit., 48
99. Kenneth Harris, Attlee (London 1982), 285-6
100. The Times, 5 January 1948, 4
101. J. Schneer, 'Hopes Deferred or Shattered: The British Left and the Third Force Movement, 1945-9', Journal of Modern History, 56 (June 1984), 197-226
102. Washington to Foreign Office, Weekly Political Summaries, 10 January 1948; FO 371 68018 AN0113
103. 'Future Foreign Publicity Policy', 4 January 1948; CAB 129 23, CP (48) 8
104. Quoted in Religion and the People, July 1946
105. Anstey, 'The Projection of'British Socialism', op. cit., 432 and 435. Interestingly, in broaching the socialist issue in the USA, British officials had been advised that Americans were to be persuaded that their way of life, in which they placed so much faith, was in all fundamental aspects 'much the same as the British way of life'
106. Roberts, Minute, Top Secret, approved by Bevin, 5 March 1948; FO800/460
107. Samuel P. Huntington, American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony (Cambridge, MA 1981), 25
108. John Kenneth White, Still Seeing Red: How the Cold War Shapes the New American Politics (Oxford 1997), 11
109. John F. Kennedy, 'Some Elements of the American Character', Independence Day Oration, 1946; PF Box 94, JFK Library
110. For an example, see William D. Graf, 'Anti-Communism in the Federal Republic of Germany', Socialist Register, 1984, 164-213
111. 'Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union', 7 January 1948, Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S. Truman 1948, 2
112. Jebb, Memoirs, op. cit., 211
113. Bevin to Inverchapel, Telegram no. 1032, Top Secret, 26 January 1948; FO 800/460
114. Robin Edmonds, Setting the Mould: The United States and Britain 1945-50 (Oxford 1986), 186
115. Top Secret record of conversation between Douglas and Bevin, 26 February 1948; FO 800/460
116. See D. Kirby, The Church of England in the Period of the Cold War, 1945-56', PhD thesis, Hull University 1990, idem, 'Truman's Holy Alliances', op. cit., idem, 'Truman's anti-Communist Christian Front', paper delivered to BAAS annual conference, Sheffield University, April 1994
117. R.D.C. McAlpine, FO to R. Spicer, Treasury, 15 March 1948; FO 371 73053
118. F.K. Roberts to the Rt. Rev. D.M. Stewart, Moderator of the Church of Scotland, and to the Rt. Rev. J.W. Richardson, Moderator of the Federal Council of the Evangelical Free Churches, 12 March 1948; FO 371 173053
119. Kenneth Grubb, Crypts of Power (London 1972), 220
120. Elisabeth Barker, The British between the Superpowers, 1945-50 (Toronto 1983), 47, 177-8
121. C.F.A. Warner to Sir John Balfour, 'Secret', 16 February 1948, FO 953 128
122. Russia Committee Meeting, 28 October 1948; FO 371 71687
123. C.F.A. Warner, Minute, 13 February 1948; FO 953 144, EP1474
124. 19 and 24 February 1948, FO 953 144, EP1474
125. Arthur Goodhart, 'Economic Theory and Religion', 12 March 1948, FO 953 145. An interesting comparison can be drawn between Goodhart's views and the suggestion from J.O. Rennie, an IRD official, who proposed a 'Purity of Motive' theme which would at one and the same time discredit the Soviet Union and make it possible to explain how the British Administration was able to combine state direction in the economic field with respect for individual liberty. It could be pointed out, for example, how both Russia and the west supported artists and scientists - in parenthesis Rennie noted that, in fact, Russia gave materially a better deal - but Russian support was for blatantly political or aggressive motives and was therefore exploitative. Similarly, he posited that both western union and totalitarianism gave assistance or financial aid, either directly or in the form of tax relief, to mothers and children; but totalitarians were concerned with producing cannon fodder, while western governments valued and respected and cared for the welfare of the individual
126. Kirby, 'The Church of England in the Period of the Cold War', op. cit
127. St Patrick's Day Address in New York City, 17 March 1948, Public Papers of the Presidents, op. cit., 186-90
128. Gaddis, 'The Insecurities of Victory', op. cit., 271-2. Even Montgomery, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, thought war with Russia unlikely before 1957, and possibly not before 1960. Memorandum by Montgomery on the problem of future war and the strategy of war with Russia, 30 January 1948; FO 800/452