Topic 10: From 1990 to 2003
The Bush 41 Presidency
GW Bush less close to Thatcher: wants to distance himself from Reagan
 British fear Bush wants Germany as his main European partner
 Thatcher isolated for opposing German reunification
Some Americans question the need for NATO after collapse of USSR
 US bases in Britain less necessary
 US more concerned with Asia than Europe
 Bush remains committed
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
March 1990 British customs authorities seize engineering parts for Iraqi ‘supergun’
2 August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait: Thatcher in the USA
 Thatcher and Bush jointly condemn Iraqi action
Thatcher and Baker disagree over whether a UN resolution needed to expel Iraq
 Thatcher argues that Kuwait can request aid under Article 51 of UN charter
26 November UN resolution requires Iraq to withdraw by 15 January 1991
Britain more supportive of war than US
 Commons vote 534-57
 Senate 57-42; House 250-183
Britain sends over 30,000 military personnel to Gulf
Bush decision to end fighting without overthrowing Saddam taken without consultation
16 April 1991 Bush adopts Major’s suggestion of ‘safe havens’ for Kurds
The Clinton presidency
Clinton initially not anxious to promote a special relationship
 Tories thought to have favoured Bush in 1992 election and that Home Office had trawled
through Clinton’s immigration file from his time at Oxford for electoral ammunition
 Cuts US troop levels in Europe
 Aims to re-orientate US priorities towards the Pacific
 Plans to make Japan and Germany permanent members of UN Security Council
Clinton and Ireland
Feb 1994 Clinton issues Gerry Adams with a visa for visiting USA: London annoyed
Clinton hopes he can facilitate Irish peace process
Aug 1994 IRA ceasefire declared: US mediation important
Dec 1994 Senator George Mitchell appointed “special adviser for economic initiatives in Ireland”
March 1995 Washington allows Sinn Fein to raise funds in the USA
 Major angry: wants IRA decommissioning first
Clinton allows Unionists to visit Washington for lobbying
Nov 1995 Clinton becomes first US president to visit Northern Ireland
Feb 1996 Mitchell chairs international commission on decommissioning
 Sinn Fein excluded because IRA had ended its ceasefire
July 1997 IRA resumes its ceasefire following Labour election victory
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Topic 10: From 1990 to 2003
Harmony between Blair and Clinton
 New Labour influenced by Clinton’s success in winning Reagan Democrats
 Blair supports Clinton during Lewinsky scandal
 Tories associated with Ulster Unionists
Blair welcomes US involvement in Irish politics
Clinton helps to facilitate moves towards 1998 Good Friday Agreement
 September 1998 Clinton visits Ireland again
 Maintains pressure on Sinn Fein to decommission
 Ireland fits into Clinton’s post-Cold War internationalist agenda
 Bush 43 less interested in Ireland
August 2001 arrest of three Provisional IRA men in Columbia weakens IRA in USA
9/11 makes US support for terrorism impossible
Post Iraq invasion Bush helps facilitate Irish agreement as reward for Blair
Yugoslavia
US under Bush and Clinton reluctant to get involved in break-up of Yugoslavia
Europeans want neutral force to act as humanitarian presence
 BUT EU ‘could barely boil an egg’ Christopher Meyer, p. 98
 US unwilling to commit its forces
Clinton more active after 1994
1995 Dayton Peace Accord
 60,000 NATO troops to Bosnia-Herzegovina
 British make second largest contribution
Dec 1998 Britain alone supports US in participating in air bombardment of Iraq
 Saddam evading UN weapons inspections
March 1999 air bombardment of Kosovo province of Serbia and targets within Serbia itself
 NATO response to ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians
 Carried out without UN sanction
22 April 1999 Blair advocates liberal humanitarian interventionism in Chicago
Blair and Clinton at odds over committing troops
 Clinton wary of ‘Vietnam syndrome’
 Blair fears Clinton will make a separate deal with Milosevic
 Joint Russian/US pressure forces Milosevic to withdraw Serbian forces
June 1999 NATO troops deployed
2000 1,300 British troops deployed to Sierra Leone to protect the government and GB nationals
The Bush 43 Presidency
2001 Blair and Bush establish a personal rapport
BUT US-European tensions persist
 Bush aims to revive Reagan’s Star Wars
 US wants Europe to take more responsibility for its own defence
 Bush Administration not keen on multilateralism
Post 9/11 Blair becomes Washington’s favourite foreign leader
 Keen to emphasise Britain’s role as US ‘bridge’ to Europe
 Aims to stay close to US, and hope to influence US policy towards multilateralism
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Topic 10: From 1990 to 2003
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Hopes to link war on terror with settlement of Israeli-Palestinian dispute
Blair wants credible evidence of Saddam’s links to 9/11 prior to invasion
Blair’s muscular Christian moral hawkishness
Oct 2001 NATO attack on Afghanistan
 Taliban government removed
 Dec 2001 Karzai appointed to head new Afghan government
Late 2001/early2002 Europeans increasingly critical of US unilateral approach to Afghanistan
January 2002 Bush’s State of the Union speech refers to ‘axis of evil’
 Iraq, Iran, North Korea
April 2002 Bush and Blair at Crawford (Bush’s Texas ranch)
 Blair told that war against Iraq decided on?
 US already committed to regime change in Iraq
 WMD and Saddam’s links to 9/11 not important considerations
 Meyer believes final decision for war not already taken
2002 Blair wants Iraq and WMD discussed at UN
September 2002 Blair ‘dodgy dossier’ alleges
Iraq’s WMD a ‘current and serious’ threat to British security
Baghdad had tried to buy ‘yellow cake’ uranium oxide from Niger
Weapons could be ready for use in 45 minutes
8 November 2002 UN Security Council Resolution 1441
 Iraq faces ‘serious consequences’ if it failed to provide inspectors with ‘an accurate, full,
final, and complete disclosure’ of all aspects of its WMD programme
 Saddam agrees to allow inspectors to return
 US hawks unhappy: fear that Saddam’s partial compliance will prevent war
Europeans want a second UN resolution authorising war
USA argues that no further resolution needed
29 January 2003 Bush’s State of Union message signals that war imminent
“This call of history has come to the right people.”
Blix and UN weapons inspectors’ reports insufficiently precise to justify war
“a bog of uncertainty” Meyer, p. 261
31 Jan 2003 Blair in Washington
 Hopes to persuade Bush to delay war and seek second resolution
 Washington tries for a second resolution without enthusiasm
18 March 2003 Commons votes in favour of war
 139 Labour MPs oppose
 Tories support Blair
War begins without another resolution
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