Letter to America

Dear America

This letter is a difficult one to write, as is any letter which marks a turning point in a relationship which has endured in its current form since the second World War. In fact, just this week we have been commemorating the eightieth anniversary of that wonderful moment in May 1945, when our parents’ generation joyfully celebrated the victory of the allies in Europe and the defeat of Hitler and Naziism. 

That victory would not have been possible without your military might and manpower and the fact that you entered the war in December 1941 after the Japanese bombed your ships in Pearl Harbour. To say that this was a decisive turning point in the war would be an understatement. For two terrible and terrifying years, the Nazi war machine had captured and occupied swathes of Europe and North Africa and rained bombs down in a blitz on London in an attempt to break the spirit of the British people. In our darkest hour, it looked as though our island, too, would be occupied. 

Thankfully that was not our fate and we will forever be grateful to you, the American administration and its people, for saving us from it.

I was born in 1947 in Mildenhall, Suffolk. In the following two years, Americans took over and massively enlarged two RAF bases in Mildenhall and nearby Lakenheath, where they remain to this day, set up initially as a bulwark against any potential Russian aggression in Europe. So, from my earliest years, I was very accustomed to seeing your American GIs in uniform on the streets of our small town and hearing American accents in the shops. In fact, my family’s business gradually grew and thrived from the late 1950s onwards thanks to lucrative contracts with both USAF bases for the supply of building materials and hardware.

That overwhelming sense of Americans being the ‘good guys’ whose sheer size, power and strength could wrap itself round our devastated continent was reinforced by both The Marshall Plan and the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Britain and most of western Europe was on its knees in the 1950s in a way that is now difficult to imagine. Approximately 36.5 million Europeans had died in the conflict, 19 million of them civilians. Refugee camps and rationing dominated daily life. In some areas, infant mortality rates were one in four. Millions of orphans wandered the burnt-out shells of former cities. In the German city of Hamburg alone, half a million people were homeless.

Money to rebuild the devastated cities of Europe came in the form of the billions of dollars you provided in financial aid, machinery and technical assistance via The Marshall Plan in 1948, understanding that your former doctrine of isolationism would also threaten the United States if democracies in Europe failed to grow and flourish to counter the threat posed by a resurgent Soviet Union under Stalin.

That is often thought to be the main reason that NATO was formed in 1949, however this is only partially true. The creation of the Alliance was part of a broader effort to serve two other purposes: firstly to prevent the revival of Naziism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent (hence those USAF bases in my home town), and secondly to encourage European political integration so that democracy could take root and flourish. Thanks in large part to you, America, your provision of aid with a security umbrella ensured that political stability was gradually restored to Western Europe and the post-war economic miracle could begin.

Throughout my childhood and teenage years, America came to symbolise not only prosperity and security but also a world that was modern, dynamic and exciting. I went every week to our flea pit cinema and swooned over Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Robert Redford. Elizabeth Taylor had a dark, smouldering sensuality, whilst Marilyn Monroe was blonde, a bit ditsy, but oh so sexy. The soundtrack of my early years was supplied by Elvis the Pelvis Presley, himself an extremely handsome G.I., and later, on the political stage there was the incredible glamour of John F. Kennedy and his beautiful wife Jackie, whose style was the epitome of elegance and sophistication. 

In 1965 before going up to London to college, I worked as a teaching assistant in Beck Row, the small village which was entirely surrounded by your American air base. Almost all the children in our Reception class were American because they could come to our local school a year younger than their own education system allowed. Your cute little kids would arrive with their ‘lunch pails’ in which they had their ‘jelly and peanut butter sandwiches’ and ‘cookies’. Oscar Wilde once said: “We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except of course, language.” Hearing these delightful four and five year olds chattering away to each other, I often felt that he had a point.

It’s a good joke, but at heart we in Britain have always felt a strong common cause with the American people. So much so that we have long kidded ourselves that you and we have a very special relationship which somehow gives us a louder voice in your ear than other European countries. Why? Because of our historic relationship, combined with our shared values. Like you, we have always believed in a rules-based system which respects the law of the land. We both believe that democracies are better than autocracies because we can hold our leaders to account and dismiss them if they are found wanting. And, with you, we have also honoured the NATO treaty we both signed in 1949, which was designed to protect the world from Soviet expansionism. 

It is therefore with extreme sadness that I am writing this letter to you, America, because it feels as though the whole of that familiar post-1945 consensus is coming to an end. You no longer see our partnership as you once did, and, even sadder, according to a speech made by your Vice President in Munich on February 14th you now believe that: “the greatest danger to the world order is not Russia, not China, but the danger within Europe itself”. The evidence for this given by J.D.Vance, included the fact that in the UK we have laws preventing people from protesting outside abortion clinics - in his view a dangerous curtailment to free speech. Your V.P. gave us many other examples of our collective European failures to protect both free speech and democracy, all of which has left us in no doubt that the transatlantic alliance that had endured for eighty years, has all but collapsed.

And then, in case there was any doubt about how our relationship had undergone a sea change, just two weeks later on the 28th February, President Zelensky was invited into the Oval Office for a meeting with the President and Vice President of the USA. On this side of the Atlantic, both in the UK and throughout most of Europe, we see Zelensky as a war-hero. The democratically elected leader of Ukraine who has valiantly and bravely rallied his country to defend itself against an illegal invasion by Russia in 2022, which has killed many of its people. When I happened to turn on my TV to watch the 6 O’ Clock news on the BBC, I could hardly believe my eyes or ears. Oh America, I thought, what are you doing?

It was immediately apparent that President Zelensky was being treated more as an enemy than a friend. The tone of the conversation was hostile and bullying. Vice President Vance took him to task for not showing enough respect in the way that he was dressed. He accused him of not being grateful enough for the military support he had received from the USA. And all of this was happening against a backdrop in which the Trump administration had four days previously aligned with Russia at the United Nations, voting against a European-backed General Assembly resolution to condemn Russia and demand a withdrawal of its troops in Ukraine. 

All of which is evidence that our close relationship is undergoing a profound change. For eighty years, your hard and soft power has ensured that another war on our European continent is unthinkable. But, just as war returns to European soil in the form of Russian expansionist aggression towards Ukraine, you seem to be siding with our enemy, Putin, much more than with us, your long-time allies and friends.

Often, when a very long relationship turns sour, we say “It’s not you, it’s me.” But, very unhappily I’d say it is you that seems to have changed your attitude towards us. We in the UK are as aware today on the eightieth anniversary of Victory in Europe as we have ever been, of never wanting a return of either fascism or the death and destruction it unleashed. We are as aware as we have ever been of the threat that an emboldened Russia poses to our continent, and we are as aware as we have ever been that it is you, Dear America, which has both the means and the military might to provide our best guarantee of security in this uncertain world.

Can it really be true that we are no longer close allies and the best of friends? I fervently hope not, and so I end this letter praying that the long alliance and friendship between our two continents will endure - hopefully for the next eighty years.

Yours very sincerely.

Tricia x

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