But did the special relationship ever actually exist? And if it does, what exactly does it mean in the cold light of day?<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a perennial subject of discussion,\u201d says historian Sam Edwards, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast<\/a>. \u201cYou could probably go back to the 1960s to find the first obituary of the special relationship \u2013 the first moment where commentators were asking the question: is the special relationship done and dusted, or can it survive?\u201d<\/p>\n Those debates have resurfaced repeatedly whenever London and Washington DC have had public differences over foreign policy or military strategy. It\u2019s a question that has arisen once again in March 2026, as President Trump has instigated a new wave of military operations in the Middle East, albeit without Downing Street\u2019s unconditional support.<\/p>\n Winston Churchill coins the phrase<\/p>\n The term \u2018special relationship\u2019 has been in the political vocabulary for 80 years, making an entrance in the early days of the Cold War.<\/p>\n In March 1946, Winston Churchill<\/a> travelled to Fulton, Missouri to deliver a speech formally titled Sinews of Peace. Churchill was no longer the UK\u2019s prime minister at the time \u2013 he had lost the 1945 British general election \u2013 but he remained one of the most influential political figures of the era.<\/p>\n British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US president Harry S Truman greet onlookers from the rear platform of the presidential train in Fulton, Missouri, in March 1946. Churchill would go on to deliver his influential Sinews of Peace speech, known for its warning about an ‘Iron Curtain’. (Photo by Getty Images)<\/p>\n The Second World War had ended less than a year earlier, but tensions between the Soviet Union and western powers were already hardening along ideological faultlines. Churchill used the speech to warn about Soviet expansion across eastern Europe, and what he saw as the impending threat of communism.<\/p>\n As Sam Edwards explains, the speech is \u201cfamous for two evocative phrases: one is \u2018iron curtain\u2019, the other is \u2018special relationship\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The phrase \u201ciron curtain\u201d described the emerging division of Europe between communist east and democratic west. The \u201cspecial relationship,\u201d meanwhile, referred to the close partnership that Churchill believed should bind Great Britain and the United States together in the postwar world.<\/p>\n Churchill imagined this alliance resting on shared language, political traditions and deep military cooperation. The two countries had fought closely together during the Second World War, sharing intelligence, coordinating military planning and collaborating on technological projects such as nuclear weapons research.<\/p>\n In reality, however, the concept was always more complicated than the rhetoric suggested.<\/p>\n What does the \u201cspecial relationship\u201d mean?<\/p>\n \u201cEver since Churchill articulated it in 1946, there have been questions about what it looks like, what it involves, what examples there are of it in action,\u201d Edwards says.<\/p>\n At certain moments, the alliance has appeared exceptionally close, especially during joint military operations or intelligence cooperation, as with the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At other times, it\u2019s seemed less certain.<\/p>\n Indeed, the first major test arrived surprisingly quickly.<\/p>\n In 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser, president of Egypt, nationalised the Suez Canal<\/a>, which had long been controlled by British and French interests. The canal was one of the most important shipping routes in the world, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and providing a crucial link between Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n Britain and France responded by secretly coordinating a military intervention with Israel in an attempt to regain control of the waterway.<\/p>\n The Cuban Missile Crisis: World on the Brink The United States strongly opposed the invasion.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 1956, the Suez Crisis was a first big crisis in the US\u2013UK relationship,\u201d Edwards explains. Washington applied intense financial and diplomatic pressure on Britain to withdraw its forces. The administration of US president Dwight D Eisenhower feared that the invasion would destabilise the Middle East and push newly independent states toward the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Americans were quite forceful in demanding that the British army withdraw from the Suez Canal after the nationalisation of the canal zone,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The crisis is often interpreted by historians as a symbol of Britain\u2019s declining global power in the postwar era.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the aftermath there were discussions: what does the special relationship look like now?\u201d Edwards says. \u201cIs it going to survive any longer?\u201d<\/p>\n It did. But the crisis made one thing clear. In this relationship, the United States had become the dominant partner.<\/p>\n How Vietnam became another test<\/p>\n Questions about the alliance resurfaced again in the 1960s during the Vietnam War<\/a>.<\/p>\n The United States, then led by President Lyndon B Johnson, sought international support for its expanding military intervention in southeast Asia. Britain\u2019s Labour government, headed by Harold Wilson<\/a>, came under pressure to demonstrate solidarity with military backing.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, Harold Wilson persistently refused to send British troops to Southeast Asia,\u201d says Edwards, \u201cdespite the fact that Lyndon B Johnson asked on various occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision created yet further diplomatic tension between London and Washington. But, Edwards argues, part of the reason the relationship has survived repeated crises is that it operates on along two distinct axes.<\/p>\n \u201cOne is a description of a functional relationship, especially between US and UK intelligence agencies and their militaries.\u201d For example, the two countries are central members of the \u2018Five Eyes\u2019 intelligence alliance, which also includes Canada, Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n In this sense, the phrase refers to concrete cooperation: shared intelligence networks, joint military planning and close defence collaboration. The two countries coordinate on nuclear strategy, share classified information and frequently operate together in military coalitions.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s also a second dimension.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other part is that it\u2019s an idea, an image, a discursive construct,\u201d Edwards says.<\/p>\n Politicians often invoke the phrase symbolically to signal shared democratic values and cultural ties. This rhetorical layer can survive, even when foreign and military policy disagreements spill over into the public sphere.<\/p>\n \u201cThe interesting thing about what we\u2019re witnessing right now is the erosion of both of those [dimensions of the special relationship],\u201d Edwards says.<\/p>\n Recent debates about the use of British military assets by the American military have raised questions about the functional side of the alliance. At the same time, political rhetoric has begun to harden. President Trump appeared to criticise UK prime minister Keir Starmer in March 2026, saying: \u201cThis is not Winston Churchill that we\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Trump gestures to the crowd during ceremonies marking the start of his second presidential inauguration in 2025. During his presidency he has criticised the leaders of NATO countries, including the prime minister in the UK, Sir Keir Starmer. (Photo by Getty Images)<\/p>\n \u201cThe irony within all of this is that the person driving what looks like the erosion of the special relationship is himself a contemporary of that relationship,\u201d Edwards says of Trump.<\/p>\n Churchill delivered his Fulton speech in March 1946. \u201cTrump goes back to June 1946.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, both the concept and one of its most recent critics were born in the same year. That\u2019s not the only irony. Edwards also notes that the current US president is the first since Woodrow Wilson to have a British mother.<\/p>\n Still, after eight decades, the special relationship has survived multiple crises \u2013 all of which seemed like they might bring it to an end.<\/p>\n As to whether the current tensions will prove more serious, Edwards is uncertain.<\/p>\n \u201cCan it outlast this? We shall see. I think it will, in some form or shape, but I think it is going to look different in the years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Matt Elton was speaking to Sam Edwards on the HistoryExtra podcast<\/a> series History Behind the Headlines. Listen to the full conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few diplomatic partnerships have been declared to be on life support quite as often as the so-called \u2018special…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-478932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Winston](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1225301681-c41bf7e-e1773677783990.jpg\" "\\"Winston")
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\nMember exclusive | In this HistoryExtra podcast series, we explore the roots of the Cold War standoff and meet the key players in the confrontation. We track the pivotal 13 days at its centre, and the Cold War alliances that saw diplomatic tensions escalate to breaking point
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\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Cuban-Missile-Crisis-Sq-a3f611c.jpg\" "\\"Cuban")
<\/p>\n![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2194451306-c34ffe8-e1773677985329.jpg\" "\\"ABC")
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