The bitterness of the battle between the British and the Argentinians over the Falklands has been matched by the behind-the-scenes word battle between our UN Ambassador and our Secretary of State over the American role in the conflict. Newsweek uncovered some of their exchanges in a stormy 45-minute telephone confrontation.
Secretary of State Alexander Haig accused Kirkpatrick of being “incapable of thinking clearly because of her close links with Latins.” Mrs. Jeane Kirkpatrick accused Haig and his aides of being “amateurs … Brits in city clothes … totally insensitive to (Latin) cultures.”
The most interesting of Mrs. Kirkpatrick’s thrusts, however, go far beyond the matter of taking sides in the conflict over who will control a few cold, wet islands with a few thousand people and some tens of thousands of sheep. She touched a tender nerve when she suggested that the British really control U.S. foreign policy.
According to the Newsweek exclusive, Mrs. Kirkpatrick looks upon Haig’s support of Britain as a “boys’ club vision of gang loyalty.” She asked Haig, “Why not just disband the State Department and have the British Foreign Office make our policy?”
Those who have studied 20th-century history can reasonably conclude that Mrs. Kirkpatrick’s question is more true than rhetorical. The consistent pattern of our foreign policy has been our inability to act in the face of British opposition.
This is not to blame the British. Their policies are designed to serve their own interests. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect that U.S. policies be designed and implemented to serve American interests. In many instances, those interests coincide with those of the British, but where they do not, our State Department has an obligation to serve U.S. interests rather than those of any foreign country, even England.
Britain has been resolutely opposed to Communist aggression when its own interests are at stake. Thus, when the Communists tried to take over Greece and Turkey, this interfered with Britain’s vital interests in the Mediterranean, and so Britain fully supported the Truman Doctrine to resist Communist aggression in that area.
However, when U.S. interests were challenged by Communist aggression in the western Pacific, the British, in order to protect their shipping, lined up on Red China’s side.
During the Korean War in 1950, when the Chinese Reds started to attack our armies in Korea from Manchurian bases, General George Stratemeyer ordered his Fifth Air Force to destroy these bases so as to cut off Chinese supplies and reinforcements. British Prime Minister Attlee flew to Washington to veto this order and successfully persuaded President Truman to give the Chinese Reds a privileged sanctuary.
President Eisenhower told in his memoirs that he offered to answer the desperate French cries for help at Dienbienphu in 1954 IF the British approved. Thus, the use of U.S. military forces was left to a British decision.
When President Kennedy abandoned Laos, he was again accepting a British veto on American policy. It was widely known that Kennedy did not act on major foreign policy Issues without consulting the British Ambassador.
When the United States got into the Vietnam War, British shipping supplied the Communist war effort. Britain’s diplomacy kept the port of Haiphong open for Communist supplies and restrained our bombing of Communist military installations.
Every few years, the British make big news by expelling a few Soviet spies. But the British never showed any diligence or interest in eliminating Communist spies who stole American secrets or worked against U.S. policy. British-cleared scientists Klaus Fuchs, Bruno Pontocorvo, and Allan Nunn May stole the secrets of the American atomic and hydrogen bombs. British-cleared employees at the Portland, England, Naval Base, Ethel Gee and Harry Houghton, stole the secrets of our nuclear Polaris submarines. The British traitor, Harold Philby, who finally moved to Russia, had access to all U.S. intelligence secrets.
The British spies, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, worked out of the British Embassy in Washington and the American desk in the British Foreign Office. During the Korean War, they transmitted the information to the Communists that the Truman Administration would not permit General MacArthur to knock out the Yalu River Bridges used by the Chinese Reds to attack our soldiers.
It is refreshing to have our UN Ambassador speak out about British control of U.S. foreign policy. 1Isn’t it time we have a Secretary of State who puts American interests first?
