Winston Churchill coined the term “special relationship” to encapsulate ties that bind the UK to the United States. In 1944, after American intervention helped turn the tide of war in Europe, Churchill declared it was his "deepest conviction that unless Britain and the United States are joined in a special relationship... another destructive war will come to pass".

Maybe that deeply-rooted alliance would have continued anyway, but the phrase stuck and became the cornerstone of British foreign policy and military preparedness ever since; a yardstick against which policies and pronouncements are measured, perhaps to an unhealthy degree which sometimes demanded silence or complicity when a critical friend was required.

The Suez crisis in 1956 clarified where power lay. Britain neglected to consult the Americans before setting off to invade the Suez Canal which President Nasser of Egypt had nationalised. President Eisenhower was furious and told the Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, to behave himself. British forces were promptly withdrawn and the relationship since has been between leader and follower.

Read more by Brian Wilson

Then it took a clever statesman like Harold Wilson to keep us out of the Vietnam imbroglio while not breaking the special relationship. But even that demanded silence when voices around the world, and on the streets, were being raised. The balancing act between diplomacy and political principle was never more delicate.

By and large, the ambiguity could be defended on grounds of common cause. In extremis, just as in 1944, the........

© Herald Scotland