High grade Alevel history (The Making of Modern Britain, 1951–2007) essay on ‘Wilson did not achieve any of his foreign policy aims between .’ Assess the validity of this view.
‘Wilson did not achieve any of his foreign policy aims between 1964-1970.’ Assess the
validity of this view
Although there is strong evidence of Wilson’s failures during this period and his inability to
secure all his aims, when considering the validity of this statement it is significant to
decipher whether the argument that Wilson did not achieve ‘any’ of his aims is valid. Due to
there being evidence of Wilson having achieved some of his aims such as preserving the
special relationship with the USA, this statement can only be agreed to an extent as
although Wilson was not completely successful during this period, he did make some
notable achievements.
In terms of how successful Britain’s policy was towards the USA during this period, it is
significant to mention that Wilson did not successfully avoid devaluation. Even though
Wilson maintained the US economic support, this did not actually prevent devaluation and
therefore it could be questioned as to whether Wilson’s ‘moral’ support during the Vietnam
War was worth it? Furthermore, the USA was unhappy with Britain’s refusal to send troops
to Vietnam. The US defence secretary (Robert MacNamara) argued that Britain failed to
adhere to SEATO obligations to prevent communism spreading. Although, Wilson argued
that Britain was fighting communism in Malaysia. Wilson’s decisions were also unpopular
back home as the British public and Labour were unhappy over Wilson’s ‘moral’ support and
moreover his failure to condemn the USA. Notably, Wilson was personally targeted and
many protested against his decisions such as the March 28th 1968 US embassy at Grosvenor
square protest (resulting in 200 arrests) and in October 30,000 protested in London.
Furthermore, Wilson received criticism over Vietnam in 1966 from Michael Foot (future
leader). However, the fact that Wilson achieved his aim of preserving a healthy relationship
with the US should not be dismissed and moreover that he took a ‘middle ground’ approach
with the moral support. Significantly, Wilson managed to maintain the ‘special’ relationship
whilst keeping troops out of Vietnam. Despite pressure from President Johnson and
MacNamara Wilson stayed strong in his decision to not offer military support. Furthermore,
Wilson was able to justify the ‘moral’ support and paper over differences by emphasising
that part of the ‘special’ relationship was to be a ‘critical friend’. Therefore, although Wilson
received a lot of criticism for his decisions in terms of the Vietnam War and the fact that
devaluation did occur despite the US financial aid, the fact that he managed to keep British
troops out of conflict without jeopardising the US financial support can be argued to be a
significant achievement as Wilson successfully preserved the ‘special’ relationship which
was his main aim.
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