Eisenhower, Macmillan, and allied unity, 1957-1961

"Between 1957 and 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Harold Macmillan restored the 'special relationship' between the United States and Great Britain after the Suez Crisis of 1956 Threatened to divide these longtime allies. Eisenhower and Macmillan established a diplomatic partnership designed to keep the peace during one of the most difficult periods of the Cold War.

The Eisenhower-Macmillan partnership rested on three elements: the personal friendship which existed between the two men; the system of bilateral consultations which they established; and the programme of defence cooperation which they instituted. As allies in peacetime, Eisenhower and Macmillan confronted the great issues of the Cold War: the acceleration of the arms race; the tension over the future of Berlin and Germany; disarmament; and the strengthening of NATO. By the end of the 1950s, Eisenhower and Macmillan appeared to be moving the Western Alliance toward a new period of negotiation with the Soviet Union, only to see the controversy surrounding the downing of an American U-2 aircraft destroy that prospect.

This study explores the most important diplomatic partnership of the 1950s."--BOOK JACKET.