Britain and a New World Role: The Nassau Agreement 1962 and its effect on International and Anglo-European Relations, and the Anglo-American ‘Special Relationship’

This research focuses on the Nassau Agreement of 1962 and its effects on International relations. The Nassau Agreement can not be analysed however without looking at the Camp David Agreement of 1960 and the cancellation of Skybolt and the crisis that this created within British and American relations. While the Skybolt Crisis is used as a symbol of the failures of the Special Relationship the subsequent Nassau Agreement can be seen as an example of that Special Relationship in action. However the Special Relationship is just part of the complex and wide ranging story that also encompasses the Anglo-French relationship in the 1960s, the after effects of the Suez crisis, the changing nature of America’s nuclear strategy, Britain’s decline and a lack of communication between allies. The Nassau Agreement was also coloured by the context of 1962; the Cuban Missile crisis, the issues in Berlin, Communism and the Cold War. The consequences of the Nassau Agreement, the Multilateral Force, the long standing nuclear relationship between Britain and America and, to some, de Gaulle's veto of the British application to the EEC all effect how the Agreement was judged by historians, politicians and commentators alike. It is also important to look at the characters involved in the Crisis and the Agreement such as Robert McNamara and David Orsmby Gore and the relationship between Harold Macmillan and Dwight Eisenhower until 1960 and John F Kennedy there after. It is only when all of these issues and consequences are examined together can the Nassau Agreement be truly understood.