Jilting the Iron Lady

...Reagan's trips to Britain were fantasies cometrue...

...The special relationship persists, even if not at every level...

...He may have had reason to be concerned back then...

...But that call was not made until Henry E. Catto Jr., the U.S...

...Prime Minister Thatcher—and therefore Britain—is very much isolated in the Community...

...Because the Bush Administration still prefers to deal with a Conservative rather than a Labor Government, it has attempted to help out Thatcher, leading to some unintended confusion...

...In the United States, meanwhile, a new Weltanschauung is emerging...

...invasion ofthat island nation...

...And despite the Panama episode, it has been very noticeably on the decline of late, with both parties acting embarrassed at the signs of failing ardor and protesting too much that their feelings for each other have not changed...

...Only Grenada's membership in the Commonwealth obliged the Prime Minister to refrain from applauding the U.S...

...affections...

...In the new worldview, Western Europe would then finally be able to assume responsibility for its own security, and the U.S...

...The British had to be content with learning about Washington's thoughts on defining the U.S.-European Community relationship at the same time as everyone else...

...would be in a position to gradually trim its costly military presence on this side of the Atlantic to relatively token levels...

...He supported Britain's Falkland Island campaign even though that meant antagonizing the Latin American nations, who considered Britain the aggressor, and was contrary to American interests...

...We share a common heritage and basic legal and political principles that run deeper than international arrangements...

...We propose that the United States and the European Community work together to achieve, whether in treaty or some other form, a significantly strengthened set of institutional and consultative links...

...During Ronald Reagan's reign in Washington the bond was tight and seemingly unbreakable...

...Like such affairs, however, this one has had its ups and downs...

...It is interesting to observe that the British own more property and assets in the United States than any other foreigners, yet Americans do not feel threatened by this incursion—as they do by, say, Japanese investment...

...But it was not simply the changing of the guard at the White House that began to weaken Anglo-American ties...

...If understanding and sympathy for American views are to be secured at the Community's Brussels headquarters, it would be better tactically for the United States to establish a special relationship with the West Germans (as it has perhaps started to do) or the French...

...She is at odds with its leaders on several key issues...

...Given Britain's ceaselessly confrontational domestic politics, it is not surprising that the Labor Party has vigorously cited the altered trans-Atlantic picture as additional proof that the Prime Minister deserves to be booted out of 10 Downing Street...

...Both have far-reaching geopolitical implications that undermine Thatcher's increasingly desperate efforts to preserve what has been her country's comparative insularity within the Community...

...in the Panama affair notwithstanding, any truly separate relationship Britain might wish to have with nations outside Europe is thus slowly fading into irrelevance—whether it be with old friend America or with an erstwhile Commonwealth stalwart like Australia...

...Not since Henry Kissinger philosophized and pontificated as National Security Adviser and as Secretary of State has there been so thorough and comprehensive a review of the U.S...

...He addressed Parliament, was received as a good friend at Buckingham Palace, and went horseback riding with Queen Elizabeth...

...It is a cog in the international conglomerate known as the European Community (EC), no longer able to claim the preeminence it enjoyed in its imperial days...

...Such a strategy could prove particularly rewarding in the area of trade—where serious conflicts between the United States and the European Community have already erupted, and others are gestating menacingly...

...Only the danger of offending Irish-American voters kept the Reagan Administration from responding more positively to pleas from London for stronger action against Irish Republican Army fund raisers and arms buyers in the United States...

...Unexpected events affecting the two countries have been more significant...

...Indeed, Britain's fundamental interests are becoming more and more identical with those of the rest of theEC...

...Thatcher's contention that there should be no relaxation yet of NATO'S structure no longer seems to be shared by anyone in Washington...

...Thatcher took the same delight in visiting the United States where, at least early in her prime ministership, her support for controversial American foreign policy moves inspired bumper stickers reading, "Atta boy, Maggie...

...and British policies...

...He is believed to have purged the State Department of a reflexive Anglophilia...

...Peter Jay, a former British ambassador in Washington, once compared the liaison between the United States and Britain to a longstanding extramarital affair...

...More to the point, before it was distracted by Panama, the Bush Administration had been clearly signaling that whatever Thatcher thinks, it favors advancing EC unity...

...In that address, at the Berlin Press Club, the Secretary said: "Wewantour trans-Atlantic cooperation to keep pace with European integration and institutional reform...

...Similarly, it required a mere phone call from Reagan for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to risk serious popular protests and permit the use of British-based American aircraft in the April 1986 bombing raid against Libya, held responsible by Washington for anti-American terrorism in Europe...

...One consequence has been Washington's apparent conclusion that there is very little room anymore for a special connection with London...

...Now Britain (no longer Great) appears at last to be discovering that elusive role, albeit without enthusiasm...

...Although the historic closeness of London and Washington is undergoing a change, it would be wrong to conclude that the estrangement extends to the peoples of the United States and Britain...

...Its privileged status was gone—and that was part of the message, too...

...It arises," he said, "entirely from natural affection...

...The EC is currently in the process of adjusting to two momentous ongoing developments: the upheavals in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and its own "barriers down" 1992 economic revolution...

...Today Washington views that old intimacy as a liability in Europe, not an asset...

...ambassador here, alerted Washington to a barrage of London newspaper commentary asserting that the President was unabashedly turning his back on The Iron Lady...

...A DIVERGENCE OF INTERESTS Jilting the Iron Lady BY NORMAN GELB London When Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, nearly alone among world leaders, staunchly endorsed the American military operation in Panama, there were some murmurings here about the British-American special relationship remaining very much alive, after all...

...link would serve as an instrument for continuing American dominance in Europe...

...The collapse of the Soviet military threat, the strengthening of the EC, the possible reemergence of a German superstate, the consolidation of Japanese economic might, and uncertainty about China—not to mention the budget deficit—have brought about a shift in American objectives...

...position in the world...

...Charles de Gaulle, when he was President of France, vetoed British membership in the EC because he feared the tight British-U.S...

...During his brief December stopover in London en route to West Germany, it is further noted, Baker did not tell the British a single detail of the important speech on U. S. policy he was set to deliver in Berlin...

...Secretary of State James A. Baker III is seen in Britain as the man who has been primarily responsible for the cooling of U.S...

...Norman Gelb, the NL's London correspondent, is the author most recently of Dunkirk: The Complete Story of the First Step in the Defeat of Hitler...

...But that was a misreading of the situation...

...The Prime Minister's backing of theU.S...

...Recently, for example, when the Prime Minister faced a Labor onslaught in the House of Commons over her opposition to speeding up EC integration, she boasted that the President had telephoned from the White House to assure her of the harmony between essential U.S...

...Almost 30 years ago Dean Acheson accurately observed, "Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role...

...TheForeign Office here acknowledges as much, even if Thatcher is reluctant to accept the reality...