[199], Macmillan's first government had seen the first phase of the sub-Saharan African independence movement, which accelerated under his second government. [99][100], Macmillan was Minister of Defence from October 1954, but found his authority restricted by Churchill's personal involvement. [247] After she ended Labour's five-year rule and became Prime Minister in May 1979,[248] he told Nigel Fisher (his biographer, and himself a Conservative MP): "Ted [Heath] was a very good No2 {pause} not a leader {pause}. [185] At the same time, the Anglo-American "working groups", which Macmillan attached such importance to turned out to be largely ineffective as the Americans did not wish to have their options limited by a British veto; by in-fighting between agencies of the U.S. government such as the State Department, Defense Department, etc. Partly as a consequence of this favour, in late October 1957 the US McMahon Act was eased to facilitate nuclear co-operation between the two governments, initially with a view to producing cleaner weapons and reducing the need for duplicate testing. Richard Gott, 'The Evolution of the Independent British Deterrent'. Historian John Vincent explores the image Macmillan crafted of himself for his colleagues and constituents: He presented himself as a patrician, as the last Edwardian, as a Whig (in the tradition of his wife's family), as a romantic Tory, as intellectual, as a man shaped by the comradeship of the trenches and by the slump of the 1930s, as a shrewd man of business of bourgeois Scottish stock, and as a venerable elder statesman at home with modern youth. Lady Dorothy died on 21 May 1966, aged 65, after 46 years of marriage. [223] In the ensuing Parliamentary debate he was seen as a pathetic figure, while Nigel Birch declared, in the words of Browning on Wordsworth, that it would be "Never glad confident morning again!". In his delirium he imagined himself back in a Somme casualty clearing station and asked for a message to be passed to his mother, now dead. For the politicians concerned, this must have been a good thing. The incident prompted an inquiry from the War Office as to whether the Guards Reserve Battalion "could be relied on". Lady Dorothy was also descended from William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, who served as Prime Minister from 1756 to 1757 in communion with Newcastle and Pitt the Elder. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963, Schooling, university and early political views, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Supply (19401942), Minister Resident in the Mediterranean (19421945), Historians' assessments of Macmillan's premiership, Thorpe 2010, pp. Harold Macmillan (1957-1963): . Whether he was ever a mainstream Conservative, rather than a skilful exponent of the postwar consensus, is more doubtful. [38] The engagement of Captain Macmillan to the Duke's daughter Lady Dorothy was announced on 7 January 1920. She did not learn the truth about her parentage until she was about 17, when it shook her deeply. [213], Macmillan cancelled the Blue Streak ballistic missile in April 1960 over concerns about its vulnerability to a pre-emptive attack, but continued with the development of the air-launched Blue Steel stand-off missile, which was about to enter trials. Within a few months of becoming President he merged the Carlton and Junior Carlton. Their lavish wedding, on 21 April at St. Margaret's, Westminster, was attended by royalty, aristocracy and leading literary figures, and was hailed as the social event of the London season.[4]. He was not a member of "the Establishment"in fact he was a businessman who had married into the aristocracy and a rebel Chancellor of Oxford. Time passed, the physical passion between Boothby and Dorothy faded (though she continued to write letters and telephone him every day) and gradually they settled down, with Harold, into a menage a trois. [246], Macmillan found himself drawn more actively into politics after Margaret Thatcher became Conservative leader in February 1975. [95] 'It is a gambleit will make or mar your political career,' Churchill said, 'but every humble home will bless your name if you succeed. According to Sir Patrick Neill QC, the vice-chancellor, Macmillan "would talk late into the night with eager groups of students who were often startled by the radical views he put forward, well into his last decade."[237]. [26] Prime Minister Asquith's own son, Raymond Asquith, was a brother officer in Macmillan's regiment, and was killed that month. [185], The special relationship with the United States continued after the election of President John F. Kennedy, whose sister Kathleen Cavendish had married William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, the nephew of Macmillan's wife. Anthony Bevins, 'How Supermac Was "Hounded Out of Office" by Band of 20 Opponents'. [118] Since the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, relations between Britain and Egypt had deteriorated. Cambridge University Press, 2017, p. 89, Thorpe 2010, pp. He was also a member of Buck's, Pratt's, the Turf Club and Beefsteak Club. "[122] Macmillan knew President Eisenhower well, but misjudged his strong opposition to a military solution. Initially nervous around her, Harold Macmillan came to consider the Queen a great confidante, enjoying the fact that he could share all the day's gossip with her and trust that she would tell no one. [250]:27 In a celebrated speech he wondered aloud where such theories had come from: Was it America? Having had an abortion in 1951, she was unable to have children of her own and the couple adopted two sons. Negotiations to join the EEC were complicated by Macmillan's desire to allow Britain to continue its traditional policy of importing food from the Commonwealth nations of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, which led the EEC nations, especially France, to accuse Britain of negotiating in bad faith. Churchill seemed to agree with all this. British prime minister from 1957 to 1963, Macmillan, who died in 1986 at the age of 92, restored Anglo-American relations after the Suez . Although Macmillan played an important role in drafting the "Industrial Charter" ("Crossbencher" in the Sunday Express called it the second edition of The Middle Way) he now, as MP for a safe seat, adopted a somewhat more right-wing public persona, defending private enterprise and fiercely opposing the Labour government in the House of Commons. [154], In the Middle East, faced by the 1958 collapse of the Baghdad Pact and the spread of Soviet influence, Macmillan acted decisively to restore the confidence of Persian Gulf allies, using the Royal Air Force and special forces to defeat a revolt backed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt against the Sultan of Oman, Said bin Taimur, in July 1957;[155] deploying airborne battalions to defend Jordan against United Arab Republican subversion in July 1958;[156] and deterring Iraqi demands of Kuwait by landing a brigade group in june 1961 during iraqi-kuwaiti crisis 1961 .[157]. His book The Middle Way appeared in June 1938, advocating a broadly centrist political philosophy both domestically and internationally. The innocent children of ecstatic, illicit liaisons suffered in the past as much if not more than their parents. After Butler's downbeat remarks, ten minutes or so in length, Macmillan delivered a stirring thirty-five minute speech described by Enoch Powell as "one of the most horrible things that I remember in politics (Macmillan) with all the skill of the old actor manager succeeded in false-footing Rab. [106] By the 1950s he had had his teeth capped, grew his hair in a more shapely style, wore Savile Row suits and walked with the ramrod bearing of a former Guards officer, acquiring the distinguished appearance of his later career. [198] Macmillan had a pressing domestic reasons for the nuclear test ban treaty. The revelation of the affair between John Profumo (Secretary of State for War) and an alleged call-girl, Christine Keeler, who was simultaneously sleeping with the Soviet naval attache Captain Yevgeny Ivanov made it appear that Macmillan had lost control of his government and of events in general. [219] Macmillan's handling of the Vassall affair in which an Admiralty clerk, John Vassall, was convicted in October 1962 of passing secrets to the Soviet Union undermined his "Super-Mac" reputation for competence. Macmillan and Butler met Aldrich on 21 November. Sarah Macmillan (1930-1970). in, Grant, Matthew. Their advice was rejected and in January 1958 the three Treasury ministersPeter Thorneycroft, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Birch, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, and Enoch Powell, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury and seen as their intellectual ringleaderresigned. Her husband, who was created Earl of Stockton in 1984, outlived her by 20 years. You mustn't put temptation in my way. [250]:148 Having first inquired whether Argentina was known to have atomic weapons, Macmillan's advice was to appoint a senior military advisor, as Pug Ismay had been in the Second World War (in the event Admiral Lewin, Chief of Defence Staff, performed this role). [197] Through Khrushchev's reply to the Macmillan-Kennedy letter was mostly negative, Macmillan pressed Kennedy to take up the one positive aspect in his reply, namely that if a senior Anglo-American team would arrive in Moscow, he would welcome them to discuss how best to proceed about a nuclear test ban treaty. Macmillan was born on 10 February 1894, at 52 Cadogan Place in Chelsea, London, to Maurice Crawford Macmillan (18531936), a publisher, and his wife, the former Helen (Nellie) Artie Tarleton Belles (18561937), an artist and socialite from Spencer, Indiana. One nanny said, 'Feed a cold'; she was a neo-Keynesian. He is also remembered for "stop-go" economics: first expansion despite the opposition of Thorneycroft and his team, then Selwyn Lloyd's Pay Pause, and then finally the Maudling boom, with Britain's relative economic decline, especially compared to the EEC, becoming clear despite perceptions of consumer "affluence" in the late 1950s. [196], Macmillan was a supporter of the nuclear test ban treaty of 1963, and in the first half of 1963 he had Ormsby-Gore quietly apply pressure on Kennedy to resume the talks in the spring of 1963 when negotiations became stalled. His last words were, 'I think I will go to sleep now'. [204] This aim was best achieved by having the same Malay elite who had worked with the British colonial authorities serve as the new elite in Malaysia, hence Macmillan's desire to have a Malay majority who would vote for Malay politicians. With hereditary peerages again being created under Thatcher, Macmillan requested the earldom that had been customarily bestowed to departing prime ministers, and on 24 February 1984 he was created Earl of Stockton and Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden. 'I can only suppose, without knowing anything about that particular relationship, that these considerations obtained, and I think it's more decent and more civilised. [50] Eileen O'Casey, ne Reynolds (19001995), the actress wife of Irish dramatist Sen O'Casey, was another female friend, Macmillan publishing her husband's plays. [262], Tributes came from around the world. [77] At the Casablanca Conference Macmillan helped to secure US acceptance, if not recognition, of the Free French leader Charles de Gaulle. [239] Butler wrote in his review of Riding the Storm: "Altogether this massive work will keep anybody busy for several weeks."[240]. In fact, this was done at the Palace's request, so that the Queen was not being seen to be involved in politics as had happened in January 1957, and had been decided as far back as June when it had looked as though the government might fall over the Profumo scandal. Macmillan's wartime diaries were better received. Ann Caroline Faber (Macmillan) Birthdate: August 29, 1923. [14], As a child, teenager and later young man, he was an admirer of the policies and leadership of a succession of Liberal Prime Ministers, starting with Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who came to power when Macmillan was only 11 years old, and then H. H. Asquith, whom he later described as having "intellectual sincerity and moral nobility", and particularly of Asquith's successor, David Lloyd George, whom he regarded as a "man of action", likely to accomplish his goals. [206] The result was the Indonesian Confrontation, an undeclared war between Britain vs. Indonesia that began in 1963 and continued to 1966.[212]. Thorpe points out that divorce still caused muttering as late as the 1950s. [278] Wilson also argued that behind the public nonchalance lay a real professional. [142] Many ministers found Macmillan to be more decisive and brisk than either Churchill or Eden had been. In the 1950s Macmillan served as Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Anthony Eden. [141] Macmillan's Defence Minister, Duncan Sandys, wrote at the time: "Eden had no gift for leadership; under Macmillan as PM everything is better, Cabinet meetings are quite transformed". His disapproval handicapped Boothby's political prospects enormously. Macmillan had further meetings with Aldrich and Winston Churchill after Eden left for Jamaica (23 November) while briefing journalists (disingenuously) that he planned to retire and go to the Lords. [34], Owing to the impending contraction of the Army after the war, a regular commission in the Grenadiers was out of the question. '[254]:188. This contrasted with the Treasury ministers who argued that support of sterling required spending cuts and, probably, a rise in unemployment. Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC, FRS (10February 1894 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. He insisted on being "undisputed head of the home front" and that Eden's de facto deputy Rab Butler, whom he was replacing as Chancellor, not have the title "Deputy Prime Minister" and not be treated as senior to him. He told his former love. [170] Subsequently, Macmillan was to learn that neither Eisenhower nor Kennedy shared the assumption that he applied to the "Declaration of Interdependence" that the American president and the British Prime Minister had equal power over the decisions of war and peace. Ben Pimlott later described this as the "biggest political misjudgement of her reign". On 10 November 1944 he was appointed Acting President of the Allied Commission (the Supreme Commander being President).[85]. Macmillan met Eisenhower privately on 25 September 1956 and convinced himself that the US would not oppose the invasion,[123] despite the misgivings of the British Ambassador, Sir Roger Makins, who was also present. In his diary Harold Nicolson noted the feelings of the Tory backbenchers: "They feel that Winston is too old and Anthony (Eden) too weak. [175], Britain's balance of payments problems led Chancellor Selwyn Lloyd to impose a seven-month wage freeze in 1961[176] and, amongst other factors, this caused the government to lose popularity and a series of by-elections in March 1962, of which the most famous was Orpington on 14 March. For the replacement for Blue Steel he opted for Britain to join the American Skybolt missile project. Despite the hostility of large sections of British and American opinion, who were sympathetic to the guerillas and hostile to what was seen as imperialist behaviour, he persuaded a reluctant Churchill, who visited Athens later in the month, to accept Archbishop Damaskinos as Regent on behalf of the exiled King George II. [90], Macmillan returned to England after the European war, feeling himself 'almost a stranger at home'. He loved her - and in any case, divorce was unthinkable for both family and political reasons. He thought he had to build up the family publishing business to make himself worthy of her; he was star-struck by her. They are a band that in the end does not amount to more than 15 or 20 at the most.[235]. [58] However the sitting MP, Guy Kindersley cancelled his retirement plans, in part because of his own association with the anti-Baldwin rebels and his suspicion of Macmillan's sympathy for Oswald Mosley's promises of radical measures to reduce unemployment. Thorpe 2010, p. 95. You will find the Americans much as the Greeks found the Romans-great big, vulgar bustling people, more vigorous than we are and also more idle, with more unspoiled virtues, but also more corrupt. [18][pageneeded], Macmillan went up to Balliol College in 1912, where he joined many political societies. [129][130], On the evening of 22 November 1956 Butler, who had just announced British withdrawal, addressed the 1922 committee (Conservative backbenchers) with Macmillan. Macmillan was a protg of the Union President Walter Monckton, later a Cabinet colleague; as such, he became Secretary then Junior Treasurer (elected unopposed in March 1914, then an unusual occurrence) of the Union, and would in his biographers' view "almost certainly" have been President had the war not intervened. 35253 Eisenhower said these words in a meeting with Treasury Secretary, OCR A Level History B: The End of Consensus: Britain 194590 by Pearson Education. He was wounded many times during the battle of the Somme. [206] Macmillan detested Sukarno, partly because he had been a Japanese collaborator in World War Two, and partly because of his fondness for elaborate uniforms despite never having personally fought in a war offended the World War I veteran Macmillan, who had a strong contempt for any man who had not seen combat. [120] He was heavily involved in the secret planning of the invasion with France and Israel. How do you treat a cold? Britain was saved from a potentially embarrassing commitment when the Winter War ended in March 1940 (Finland would later fight on the German side against the USSR). [62], The Next Five Years Group, to which Macmillan had belonged, was wound up in November 1937. 'He was a vain man, and the fact that she loved him so extravagantly was a boost to him. Paddy Shennan, 'Britain's Biggest Nuclear Disaster'. By the time he left office, largely unlamented at the time, he was associated not with prosperity but with "anachronism and decay". Macmillan and Lady Dorothy lived largely separate lives in private thereafter. [251], As Chancellor of Oxford University, Macmillan condemned its refusal in February 1985 to award Thatcher an honorary degree. '[102], A major theme of his tenure at Defence was the ministry's growing reliance on the nuclear deterrent, in the view of some critics, to the detriment of conventional forces. As early as 1948 Humphry Berkeley wrote of how "he makes a show of being feeble and decrepit", mentioning how he had suddenly stopped shambling and sprinted for a train. Out of partnership comes understanding and friendship. The sheer devilry of it verged upon the disgusting." Yet no whisper of gossip about Dorothy ever escaped from the still tightly-knit establishment. [71], Macmillan predicted that the Conservatives faced landslide defeat after the war, causing Channon to write (6 Sep 1944) of "the foolish prophecy of that nice ass Harold Macmillan". [184] Macmillan's failure to make Eisenhower "say sorry" to Khrushchev forced him to reconsider his "Greeks and Romans" foreign policy as he privately conceded that could no "longer talk usefully to the Americans". [201] Many in the British media compared the living conditions in the Kenyan camps to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, saying that the people in the camps were emaciated and sickly. [64] He supported the independent candidate, Lindsay, at the Oxford by-election.
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