Re: AMERICANS

My main reference for Roosevelt's dismantling of the Empire come's from 
 "Churchill's Grand Alliance", by Charmley (Harcourt Brace, San Diego, 
the 1996 edition ISBN 0-15-600470-4). It's a thick read, but very 
detailed and appears to be well supported.

CS Renegade wrote:

>>That's an oft-overlooked point about Roosevelt
>>and the Lend Lease program. He very effectively
>>used our funding of Britains war with Germany
>>to strip the Empire of its Western hemisphere
>>possesions (Bermuda and Iceland)
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>Err? Iceland, a UK possession? When?
>Bermuda still is, AFAIK.
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Well, just the military bases actually. But there was a flag transfer 
ceremony at each and.

>Greenland must have had a strange status; the
>Danish king (and government?) had been captured
>early in 1940.
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Wasn't a Crown posession, and Roosevelt couldn't find anyone to sign for

it :-) But given Iceland we didn't need Greenland.

>No-one asked us to cough up any of the Carribean
>islands even though they were seen as "back yard"
>after the war. Or did we hand over a couple of
>the Lesser Antilles?
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No, I don't think so. The sun is still Not Setting on a couple of spots 
in the Carribean. If the Lesser Antilles were worth anything 
stratgeically the RN would have long ago put a base there. And Roosevelt

would have asked for it.

>>This is very possibly a motivation for the
>>formation of the NAC - Britain getting some of
>>its own back. Churchill would be proud.
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>>
>Oh no he wouldn't. Churchill would have been
>much more in favour of your following sentiment,
>even if it were only on a "53rd state" basis.
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While Churchill actually did suggest a customs and passport union 
between America and Britain (it's in his History of WW2), he would 
likely have changed his tune after Roosevelt snubbed him in favor of 
Stalin a couple of times. He'd still regret the acrimony.

>This financial state of affairs may help explain
>the "Cinderella" status of our forces in Korea
>and the apparent post-war rush to abandon many
>of our colonies. After Suez (ultimately a victim
>of the same financial weaknesses) the Empire was
>written off at the highest levels, with only a
>few small enclaves remaining after the African
>states were encouraged to jump ship in the mid-
>1960s.
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That was the idea. Unfortunately our assuming the mantle in the Middle 
East seems to have been short-sighted, or at least not very well thought

out.

>Today the loan would be worth GBP70B, or USD70B.
>The final payment of GBP244M is scheduled for
>2006 if we don't take up an option to defer.
>
>Partly from The (London) Sunday Times, 2/06/02.
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We'll be polite if you miss a payment :-)

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