Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and Glossary
- 1 The Anglo-American Relationship and the Need for Historical Interpretation
- 2 The Evolution of Transatlantic Aircraft Supply Diplomacy, 1938–40
- 3 The Diplomacy of Critical Dependency, 1940
- 4 Lend-Lease and the Politics of Supply, 1941
- 5 The Limits of Dependency: American Aircraft in Action, 1940–2
- 6 Heavy Bomber Supply Diplomacy, 1941–2
- 7 The Problem of Quality: the Fighter Supply Crisis of 1942
- 8 Collaboration and Interdependency
- Appendix RAF Air Strength by aircraft type on 3 September 1939, 1940, 1941 and 1942
- Unpublished Sources Cited in Text
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - The Anglo-American Relationship and the Need for Historical Interpretation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and Glossary
- 1 The Anglo-American Relationship and the Need for Historical Interpretation
- 2 The Evolution of Transatlantic Aircraft Supply Diplomacy, 1938–40
- 3 The Diplomacy of Critical Dependency, 1940
- 4 Lend-Lease and the Politics of Supply, 1941
- 5 The Limits of Dependency: American Aircraft in Action, 1940–2
- 6 Heavy Bomber Supply Diplomacy, 1941–2
- 7 The Problem of Quality: the Fighter Supply Crisis of 1942
- 8 Collaboration and Interdependency
- Appendix RAF Air Strength by aircraft type on 3 September 1939, 1940, 1941 and 1942
- Unpublished Sources Cited in Text
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This little island will be ridiculously proud some ages hence of its former brave days and swear its capital was once as big again as Paris, or – what is to be the name of the city that will then give laws to Europe? – perhaps New York or Philadelphia.
Horace Walpole, August 1776I have come to the conclusion that they haven't any dollars left and I am convinced, if Congress does not make it possible for them to buy more supplies, they will have to stop fighting.
Henry Morgenthau, US Secretary of the Treasury, testimony to Congress during hearings on House Resolution 1776 in January 1941These two statements encapsulate our fundamental understanding of the historical relationship between Britain and the United States to the present. Morgenthau's statement was made in support of the Lend-Lease Act in early 1941, a measure designed to relieve the exhausted British dollar exchange resources needed to purchase American supplies in World War II. The importance of that economic support is indicated by the critical dependence Morgenthau identified for it – without it, the British would be unable to continue their resistance to the Axis powers. This was a watershed moment, both in the history of the war and in the history of the Anglo-American relationship. British imperial decline and the rise of American power had been predicted, and then demonstrated.
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- The Arsenal of DemocracyAircraft Supply and the Anglo-American Alliance, 1938-1942, pp. 1 - 27Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2013