THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP - THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN

Winston Churchill and F. D. Roosevelt

From 1941 when they first met until FDR's death in 1945, Roosevelt and Churchill sustained a close personal and professional relationship. Roosevelt cabled Churchill after the first meeting, "It is fun to be in the same decade with you." Churchill later wrote, "I felt I was in contact with a very great man who was also a warm-hearted friend and the foremost champion of the high causes which we served."

Initially the alliance focused on WWII - help was needed in Europe after 1940 when British troops had to be rescued from Dunkirk. Later it developed and Churchill coined the term `Special Relationship' in 1946 when speaking in the US.

`Neither the sure prevention of war, nor the continuous rise of world organization will be gained without what I have called the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States.'

Tony Blair and Bill Clinton

"We were political soulmates," Blair says of Bill Clinton, US president for most of his first term. "We shared pretty much the same analysis of the weakness of progressive politics. We were both quintessential modernisers … He was the most formidable politician I had ever encountered … as a political class act, I deferred to the master. He had it all."

Tony Blair and George W. Bush

President George W. Bush was a "true idealist" who displayed "genuine integrity and political courage," He was "very smart" while having "immense simplicity in how he saw the world. Right or wrong, it led to decisive leadership... he sincerely believed in spreading freedom and democracy,"

Bush says: "Tony began by saying he was 'in a state of shock' and he would stand with America '100%' in fighting terror. There was no equivocation in his voice. The conversation helped cement the closest friendship I would form with any foreign leader. As the years passed and the wartime decisions grew tougher, some of our allies wavered. Tony Blair never did."

Barack Obama and David Cameron

“Seven decades ago, as our forces began to turn the tide of World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill travelled to Washington to coordinate our joint efforts. Our victories on the battlefield proved “what can be achieved by British and Americans working together heart and hand,” he said. “In fact, one might almost feel that if they could keep it up, there is hardly anything they could not do, either in the field of war or in the not less tangled problems of peace.”

Keep it up we have — not only winning that war for our survival but also building the institutions that undergird international peace and security. The alliance between the United States and Great Britain is a partnership of the heart, bound by the history, traditions and values we share. But what makes our relationship special — a unique and essential asset — is that we join hands across so many endeavours. Put simply, we count on each other and the world counts on our alliance.”

What do you think?

But does the Special Relationship exist? In fact did it ever exist? And if it does exist is it an equal relationship? Or perhaps it is simply Britain trying to maintain its own importance?

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