Foreign Relations Flashcards
(17 cards)
1
Q
How did Britain join the EEC in 1973?
A
- 1970 - Heath into power with a Europhile viewpoint
- Charles de Gaulle had died and France was now led by Georges Pompidou who believed that Britain would strengthen the EEC
2
Q
Was this a popular decision?
A
- many remained sceptical
- application was bound to succeed
- was Heath pushing his own personal agenda
- NO referendum - what Heath wanted he did
3
Q
Europhile arguments to join
A
- It would give British business access to European markets
- European markets could help replace those lost with empire
- As part of a European block Britain would have more influence on the world stage
- Britain would gain from European development grants
- British workers would gain the right to work in other EEC countries
4
Q
Eurosceptic arguments to not join
A
- Britain would no longer be allowed to buy cheap food from the Commonwealth - this could force up food prices in British shops
- Britain might end up paying more into the EEC in contributions than it got back in grants
- Britain would lose many of its fishing rights to coastal waters
- Britain would have to introduce the European purchase tax known as VAT – this would force up retail prices
- Enoch Powell voted against this at every single stage and believed that Heath had betrayed the parliament
5
Q
What was the 1973 - The Single European Act
A
- The final negotiations took another two years.
- In October 1972 The Single European Act was passed and came into force on 1st January 1973 - Britain had finally joined (along with Ireland and Denmark) and ‘The Six’ became ‘The Nine’
- however were Britain playing catch up?
- Germany and France would dominate Britain due to already have a political agenda
- joined too late to be central in decisions
6
Q
1975 referendum
A
- 1974 - Heath voted out of office so Wilson was back in power as a Labour politician
- Wilson decides to settle debate by holding a referendum
- Margaret Thatcher, Roy Jenkins voted to stay in it - reduce the price of beans
- 1975 - only 4 of 419 companies wanted to leave the EEC
- was a decisive victory - Wilson avoids labour split
Results
68.3% wanted to stay
32.5 wanted to leave
Cheshire 70.1% stay
7
Q
What was the special relationship like
A
- USA hoped GB joining the EEC would prove an important link
- Nixon and Henry Kissinger hoped that Britain would be a ‘middle man’
- Heath insisted that USA deal with EEC as a whole and not via a middle man
- Heath and Nixon however got on well
- support them in the Vietnam war despite not sending troops
8
Q
What was the issue with the Yom Kippur war
A
- USA wanted to use NATO airbases to airlift supplies to Israel
- Europe and GB refused to take sides as to not disrupt oil supplies
- briefly put relationship under strain
9
Q
1974 - 1976 Wilson and Ford
A
- Ted heath defeated in 2 general elections that Year and Republican President Nixon as forced to resign following the Watergate scandal
- Nixon replaced by Gerald Ford who served between 1974 and 1977
- GB in a difficult position after East Suez withdrawal
- Vietnam War ended so ceased to be an issue between USA and GB
- Ford and Wilson had a strong relationship
10
Q
1976 - 1979 Callaghan and Carter
A
- Democrat Jimmy Carter and Callaghan
- Callaghan was a senior statesman with considerable diplomatic skill and got on well with president Carter
- Although there were no significant wars or foreign policy incidents in this period, Callaghan did negotiate the replacement of Britain’s now aging Polaris nuclear missiles with the updated Trident system
• The special relationship was back on track
11
Q
What happened in Rhodesia
A
- Ian Smith the prime minister of Rhodesia had declared UDI (universal declaration of independence) from Britain in 1965.
- Smith had made Harold Wilson look impotent throughout the rest of the 1960’s by agreeing to, then backing out of, joint decisions
- Smith continued these tactics throughout the 1970s, and the ‘problem of Rhodesia’ bubbled away in the background as a foreign policy headache for Britain
- Eventually by 1976 his luck (and oil supplies) began to run out.
- James Callaghan was PM by then, and the USA acted as a middle man to negotiate between them
- In 1976 Smith agreed to fair elections and black majority rule, but it would be 1980 and the Thatcher government before it finally happened
12
Q
What was Britains stance in the Cold War?
A
- The Cold War began after the Second World War as both the USA with its capitalist ideology, and the USSR with its communist ideals had competed for world dominance.
- Although they never actually fought each other directly, they came close.
- In 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis bought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
- ‘Proxy’ wars were also fought such as Vietnam, where the USA and USSR funded sides in wars on neutral territory.
- Also Western Europe bordered the USSR and was considered by many the most likely flashpoint if a direct war occurred between Russia and the West – and Britain was America’s closest ally in Western Europe.
13
Q
What were the SALT talks
A
- Detente occurred - easing of international tensions
- USSR leader was Brezhnev
- both realise costs of nuclear war was unsustainable
- 2 sets of Strategic Arms Limitations Talks held to limit numbers of weapons in 1972 and 1979
- GB not involved but usa needed their support due being a semi-independent nuclear power
- Special relationship was underpinned by usas need for Britains help on the world stage
Limits
ABM - 200 each
ICBM - US = 1054 USSR = 1550
Warheads = 5700 each
Nuclear subs - US = 41 USSR = 42
14
Q
What is The Georgy Markov Affair? (Weapons)
A
- During the Cold War Bulgaria was a communist country under the control of the USSR
- Georgi Markov was a Bulgarian who had defected to the West in 1969 and was a critic of the communist regime in his old country
- He occasionally broadcast for the BBC world service
- In 1978 whilst standing at a bus stop in London he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg and turned around to see an unidentified man picking up an umbrella and walking away
- He died of blood poisoning four days later and was found to have a small mark in his leg consistent with a hypodermic needle.
- It was later concluded that he had been assassinated, probably by the KGB, on the streets of London
- A significant incident because it was a rare example of the Cold War happening on the UK mainland
- N.B. Russia has continued to assassinate dissenters on British soil since the collapse of the Soviet Union
- e.g. Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 and the attempted murder of Sergei Skirpal in Salisbury in 2018
15
Q
What was Britain’s relationship with China like?
A
- 1949 - Mao leads communist revolution
- began to modify his ideas after 20-30 million people died of starvation
- staunch ally of the USSR and therefore an enemy of the west
- However by the 1960’s he became disillusioned by the route Russian communism was taking and in particular by the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis
16
Q
What happened in the 1970s with USA, GB and China
A
- 1971 President Richard Nixon caught the world off guard by announcing he would visit China
- 1972 he did so and met Mao, it seemed as though better relations with China could be one way to shift the balance of world power away from the USSR
- Perhaps surprisingly Edward Heath also enthusiastically embraced relations with China
- He visited several times meeting Mao in 1974
- Panda Diplomacy - Mao used pandas to improve international relations
- 1974 - Ching-Ching and Chia-Chia were given to Heath, sent to London Zoo, and became British newspaper celebrities
- Throughout the 1970s relations with China improved leading to a state visit by Hua Guofeng in 1979
17
Q
Deng Xiaoping and a ‘New China’
A
- Mao died in 1976 and was eventually succeeded by Deng Xiaoping
- Deng remained in power until 1989 and under his leadership relations with the West continued to thaw
- He accepted modernisation of China’s economy along western (capitalist?) lines, whilst maintaining communist political ideals – he laid the foundations of the China we would recognise today
- Relations with Britain continued to improve
- The 1970’s were a pivotal decade in this change
