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The Special Relationship Lives Between the United States and Britain

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The United States and Britain have had a “special relationship” since World War II. Winston Churchill made the expression “special relationship” it stands for the military, political and financial support that has existed between the United States and Britain ever since their partnership in World War II. The special relationship stills lives on in the United States and Britain in four key ways; military involvement, security, economy and traded. The US and the UK both feared the Soviet threat, of the spread of communism in Europe, so military ties between the US and UK was fortified. In 1946 the US and UK air forces reached “an agreement to continue their wartime partnership in man power, strategies, gear and investigation” (Baylis 1977, …show more content…

Although military and defense partnership are the most noticeable parts of the special relationship, the UK’s financial are also strongly tied to the US. In 1945, Britain economy was shattered by the war expenses; the US gave Britain a 3.75 billion dollar loan and wrote off the Lend-Lease agreement debts. But, by 1947 the UK was in a economic catastrophe because of “a dollar deficit and a downward outlook on British exports” (Leigh-Pippard 1995, p.23). So, the US’ Marshall Plan, gave economic assistance to European countries whose economies and infrastructure had been destroyed by the war. No country was as favored by the US as Britain was, both through Marshall Aid, of which the UK received in total $3,297 million from 1948 to 1951, or through loans outside the Plan (Leigh-Pippard 1995) (Ovendale 1998) (Gardner 2001). The US and UK special relationship has been kept strong by trade. The US and the UK are both each other’s highest foreign investors, and US companies employ around 1.4 million workers in Britain, with the bulk of American businesses working in Europe and having their head offices in the UK (Raymond 2006). The UK has a wide-ranging amount of trade with one of the world’s strongest economic powers that has helped boost Britain’s own economy. Also, giving access to the huge American buyer markets that has brought a good profit to British businesses. Lastly, the US has helped Britain get out of its postwar economic disaster; the US has been a

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