The writer was UK ambassador to the US, 2012-16
For more than 80 years the relationship between Britain and the United States has been endlessly described as special. The term has served us both pretty well. Washington would call on the “special relationship” when requiring a particular favour of the British government, as in Afghanistan after 9/11 or in Iraq in 2003; the UK cites it when describing our close defence and intelligence links, US support for our nuclear deterrent, the closeness of our commercial relations, and our common language. Or when feeling unloved by closer neighbours.
But it hasn’t been faultless. Harold Wilson memorably declined to send British troops to Vietnam. In the sterling crises of 1967 and 1976, Washington declined to support the pound. In the Falklands war of 1982 the US would not support the right of the inhabitants to self-determination. In 1994, Bill Clinton infuriated the government of John Major by granting visas to Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness before the IRA had renounced the use of violence.