The brutal verbal ambush by United States leaders of Ukraine’s beleaguered President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to resonate in the world’s capitals, especially in Europe as well as in North America.
The demeaning insults directed at him by President Donald Trump and especially Vice President J.D. Vance are probably unprecedented for any media-reported meeting held in the Oval Office of the White House. Obviously, Zelensky erred by losing his temper and responding in kind. A more skilled diplomat would have kept a poker face and directed a calm response to Trump.
But cut some slack for the Ukraine leader. He has been directing the defense of his country in heavy combat with invading Russian forces for three years.
Nonetheless, a wider perspective provides some hope for Ukraine and eventual peace accord.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer provided bookends to the political disaster. Starmer met with Trump in the Oval Office the day before Zelensky, and with the Ukraine leader in London the day after. London also just hosted an emergency summit of European leaders.
Britain enjoys a firmly established Special Relationship with the United States, and a long history of favorably influencing developments in Europe.
This Special Relationship was initially formalized and announced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the darkest days of World War II. The leaders met off the coast of Newfoundland in August 1941. Churchill returned to meet with Roosevelt in the White House and address a joint session of Congress in December of that year, shortly after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
The first of these historic meetings resulted in the Atlantic Charter, defining broad positive human goals of freedom and basic economic security. The follow-up session resulted in a commitment to the concept of the United Nations.
This close partnership between Britain and the U.S. has endured, down to the present despite sometimes severe strains. The evolution of the Anglo-American Special Relationship underscores important events of that global total war, and the Cold War and post-Cold War era that have followed.
During the mid-1960s, the Johnson administration pressed extremely hard for at least token direct military participation in the Vietnam War. Australia and New Zealand, both members of the British Commonwealth, did provide forces. In the case of Australia, there was considerably more than a token commitment.
Britain remained out of that war, for understandable reasons. In hindsight, this lack of support by a close ally was an early indication of the questionable nature of the American military escalation.
From the other direction, the most serious Anglo-American and wider Atlantic alliance crisis was over the Suez Canal in 1956. Britain, France and Israel launched a coordinated surprise military attack to retake the waterway and associated territory from Egypt’s nationalist government.
President Dwight Eisenhower was completely opposed, as well as offended, by the lack of consultation. His administration forced an abrupt halt to the operation. No crisis since has so seriously threatened the alliance.
Economics strengthens alliance cooperation. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s deregulation of the economy in the 1980s pays powerful dividends today. For example, Canary Wharf, formerly grim docks and housing in eastern London, has been transformed into a mammoth global commercial center.
Trump and Vance may garner some momentary satisfaction, along with Trump’s core voters, by insulting Zelensky.
But more importantly, Britain’s government is working with others to implement a realistic, workable Ukraine peace agreement. Starmer refers to “A Coalition of the Willing.” Such leadership is essential as the U.S. withdraws.
Arthur I. Cyr is the author of “After the Cold War” (NYU Press and Palgrave/Macmillan).
Contact acyr@carthage.edu
