“It came out that the Bush people had asked John Major’s government to look into my activities in England. According to news reports the Tories complied………although they claimed …. (that this) was in response to press inquiries……..Two Tory campaign strategists came to Washington to advise the Bush campaign on how they might destroy me the way the Conservatives had undone Labour Party Neil Kinnock six months earlier. After the election, the British Press fretted that the special relationship between our two countries by this unusual British involvement in American politics.” –
from “My Life” by Bill Clinton.
The British media have worked themselves into an Imperial Lather at the idea that Vladimir Putin may have succeeded where John Major failed – in frustrating the campaign of a candidate named Clinton from winning an American Presidential Election.
Bill Clinton’s Memoir, where it covers the years before his defeat of George Bush Snr is a pleasure to read, but so far, I have never worked up the interest to read to the end of its 960 pages.
But I found one fault. British involvement in American politics is not unusual. It was particularly active in the Great War and after, as recorded by Patrick McCartan. in “With de Valera in America and during the World’s Troubles from 1939-1945, not to mention the Rebellion of 1861-1865, when Britain supported Jefferson Davis against Abraham Lincoln and built warships for the Confederacy.
An interesting and at times hilarious account of the British Spy Ring in Washington is given by Jennet Conant, a superb writer, who, as an American is not bound by the British Official Secrets Act. It is called THE IRREGULARS and subtitled “Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington.” Dahl, a dashing and handsome RAF pilot had been wounded, and sent on a charm offensive. `He won over Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, but found himself exhausted by the amorous ministrations of Congresswoman Claire Boothe Luce, the ultra-Catholic spouse of Henry Luce, publisher of TIME and LIFE magazines the 1941 Prophet of THE AMERICAN CENTURY and champion of the suppression of anybody questioning it. I was particularly interested in Claire, having read a piece she wrote about Marilyn Monroe, saying that if the actress had not had a Hollywood career she’d have made her living on the streets. Marilyn had a less privileged start in life than the Congresswoman but was a far finer character, who ensured that Ella Fitzgerald was accepted at a Hollywood venue which had banned Black people.
The British intrigued so that FDR dropped his Vice President, Henry Wallace, from the 1944 Electoral Ticket. Wallace was in favour of the decolonization of India, Burma and Malaya, and other worthy causes.
The book gives a wonderful insight into big money, “old” moneyed Americans, and hungry, able and ambitious politicians such as Lyndon Johnson, their interactions and numerous adulteries, which were kept secret because extramarital erections did not win elections .
Amongst the British Spooks was Freddie Ayers of MI6 an Oxford Philosopher who wrote on Logical Positivism, embraced Rationalism and was married 4 times to 3 women. Also among them was Ian Fleming, whose writings were less interesting or elegant than those of Jeenet Conant. And, like the Black Propaganda Unit in 1920 Dublin Castle it included one of the century’s greatest advertisers an PR men of more genius than scruples, David Ogilvy.
Some years ago when the idea of having John Hume as a candidate for Ireland’s Presidency was mooted THE TIMES of London thundered that as Hume was from Londonderry the idea was out of order.
I can accept, though I can’t understand, how someone can become a head of state and remain in office nearly seventy years without receiving a single vote from anybody.
But, if that’s how the British like it, it’s none of my business.
But if my countrymen want to choose a head of state, I don’t see what business it can be for a presumptuous amadan or inseach in a house of ill fame in London’s Fleet Street or Wapping or Westminster.
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