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Nixon's appointment of Publisher Walter Annenberg as Ambassador to the Court of St. James's has only reinforced that view. Annenberg lacks his recent predecessors' instinctive knowledge of Britain. He also lacks their style. Asked by a Briton for his opinion of the special relationship, Annenberg replied: "I have always maintained that England and America belong in bed together."
Shared Judgments. The special relationship is codified in law in only one instance. The 1946 McMahon Act, in effect, singles out Britain as the sole nation with which the U.S. may share its know-how about nuclear weaponry. But, despite the absence of formal bonds and the existence of severe strains, the relationship continues to manifest itself in scores of ways—particularly work routines and friendships. In London, the British Foreign Office has direct telephone lines to only two embassies: the Dutch, as Britain's closest Continental ally, and the American.
In scores of foreign capitals throughout the world, as one U.S. diplomat aptly phrases it, Britons and Americans are used to "sitting on the corner of each other's desks." Sir Patrick Dean, former ambassador in Washington, explains that they try to make certain "that the reasoning is the same, the appreciation of the problem is the same, and the courses open to action are judged to be about the same." Despite a few serious exceptions, U.S. and British policies since World War II have been reasonably compatible. In recent months, for example, the Anglo-American position has been fairly close on Nigeria, the Middle East, and the response to Moscow's call for a European security conference.
Broker's Role. For all that, the relationship is plainly in need of redefinition. When Harold Wilson saw Richard Nixon in London during the President's European tour last year, he spoke only of a "close relationship." Many Britons feel that their country's new role visa-vis the U.S. should be as a broker, speaking to America on Europe's behalf and vice versa. Perhaps—but the British must remember that Charles de Gaulle drew considerable European support when he barred Britain from the Common Market on the grounds that London was too closely linked to Washington.
With a new bid for Market membership coming up, the British are likely to pay closer attention to the Continent than ever before. That does not necessarily mean that they will turn away from the U.S. "I want to go into Europe," Chancellor of the Exchequer Roy Jenkins said recently, "to make the Atlantic narrower between the U.S. and Europe as a whole, not to make it wider." Of course, the British alone cannot narrow the distance; the Americans will have to help, and it is still unclear whether the Nixon Administration believes that it is really worth the effort.