Reagan and Thatcher
The Difficult Relationship
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3.9 • 7 Ratings
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
An iconic friendship, an uneasy alliance—a revisionist account of the couple who ended the Cold War.
For decades historians have perpetuated the myth of a "Churchillian" relationship between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, citing their longtime alliance as an example of the "special" bond between the United States and Britain. But, as Richard Aldous argues in this penetrating dual biography, Reagan and Thatcher clashed repeatedly—over the Falklands war, Grenada, and the SDI and nuclear weapons—while carefully cultivating a harmonious image for the public and the press. With the stakes enormously high, these political titans struggled to work together to confront the greatest threat of their time: the USSR.
Brilliantly reconstructing some of their most dramatic encounters, Aldous draws on recently declassified documents and extensive oral history to dismantle the popular conception of Reagan-Thatcher diplomacy. His startling conclusion—that the weakest link in the Atlantic Alliance of the 1980s was the association between the two principal actors—will mark an important contribution to our understanding of the twentieth century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Aldous re-examines popular myths of the closeness of the political partnership between President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, drawing on recently declassified documents, interviews, and newly opened private archives. Aldous (The Lion and the Unicorn), professor of British history and literature at Bard, reveals the dynamics between the leaders who ushered in the collapse of the cold war. He presents a "complex, often fractious" and competitive relationship from 1981 through the heated disputes between the two leaders over the Falkland conflict, nuclear arms, and Soviet strategies. Aldous says that while Reagan's style was anecdotal and without frills, Thatcher's leadership tone was "policy-driven, analytical," and very confrontational. "It all worked," Thatcher once said, "because he was more afraid of me than I was of him." Yet Thatcher feared Reagan's willingness to engage in unilateral military actions, such as invading Grenada and retaliating after the attack on American barracks in Lebanon. Aldous shows the leaders navigating on a high wire in a hothouse political climate, agreeing to disagree while never exposing the other to ridicule. This is excellent revisionist history, giving another slant to the interaction of two political icons on the world stage. 8 pages of photos.
