The Churchill Complex: The Curse of Being Special, from Winston and FDR to Trump and Brexit

As an American who loves Britain and loves to follow the modern political history of both countries, I found this book to be super interesting. From Churchill/Roosevelt to B Johnson/Trump, the author offers great, witty, often sarcastic insight into the ups and downs of the Special Relationship. He doesn’t hold back his own opinions. Not at all. He really can’t stand B Johnson and Trump, which made the book that more enjoyable.

A well written and easily understood review of the Britosh geopolitical place in the world. I don't know enough to judge all if the conclusions, but it provides a lot to think about as to how British policy developed and how the US policy develops.

Ian Buruma in the Churchill Complex charts the special relationship between British Prime Ministers and American Presidents from roughly WW2 to present. But rather then it being strictly a Churchill Complex, I consider this book more of an examination of the British trying to play a meaningful role in global affairs from 1945-present through relationships with American presidents. Churchill himself is either vaguely in the shadows or curiously non-existent throughout much of the book. But the period he lived seems very much alive.The second curious thing about this book revolves around the “special relationship” the UK and the US have with each other. For such a special relationship, it has sure seemed to be quite rocky at points in time as individual leaders have failed to connect mostly because of variations in personality and or background. But what sticks out in every chapter is Britain grasping to have a substantial role in a world that rivals even in a small way where they where in the time of Churchill.It's a very useful examination of the personalistic US-UK relationship, just not something that one might’ve expected out of a book called the Churchill Complex.

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For many decades there has been a mystique around British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his ability to lead his nation through war and build a relationship with the United States, which allowed him to sustain his government. He referred to this as the "special relationship" between Great Britain and the United States. " The Churchill Complex: The Curse of Being Special, from Winston and FDR to Trump and Brexit" by Dutch writer Ian Buruma spends its early chapters writing about this period. The remainder of the book is less about Churchill and more about how succeeding prime ministers would seek Churchill's same relationship with American presidents. Throughout, there is a strong narrative of how Britain sought a leadership position on its continent, and in the world, through its association and support from the United States.Initially, It took much effort for Churchill to enlist the support of President Roosevelt at a crucial time during a make or break time in the war. Britain had sustained the loss of 11 destroyers to the German Navy over ten days. FDR initially showed little interest in preserving Britain. In large part, that is because he promised to keep America out of the war. Churchill knew he needed that support and had a dream of the US and the USSR supporting a united states of Europe in which Britain would play a lead role. It never happened. Roosevelt died, and a nearly bankrupt nation saw Churchill voted out of office.The remainder of the book traces the up and down relationships between future prime ministers and Presidents.To begin, Churchill's replacement, Clement Attlee, never developed the same "special relationship" with Harry Truman. Among the things Attlee wanted was sharing America's nuclear secrets to enhance its stature. Truman refused.te a European Union in 1950, Britain did not want to be an equal among the other nations as it hoped the United States would always allow it special status in Europe.Even when Churchill returned to power in 1951, he saw a different relationship and a different world. His nation faced its challenges. Oilfields in Iran had been nationalized, and control of the Suez Canal was up for grabs.The book looks at each succeeding prime minister and offers evidence of how the 'special relationship' fared during their tenure.Harold Macmillan found it challenging to develop a footing with President Eisenhower but later bonded with President Kennedy. Harold Wilson had much in common with Lyndon Johnson, but LBJ wanted British troops to help fight the Vietnamese, something that never happened. Jimmy Carter and PM Jim Callahan had to deal with Irish rights with Britain seeking access to nuclear weapons of US submarines. A genuine special relationship was forged between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. When Argentina took over the Falkland Islands, Regan supported Britain's fight back, and Thatcher allowed the US to bomb Libya from British bases. Iraq united President George Herbert Walker Bush and John Major. Bill Clinton maintained a good relationship with Major and later with Tony Blair. Barack Obama worked, for a short time, with Gordon Brown and much longer with David Cameron. Brown supported Obama's efforts to deal with a massive financial crisis.The book spends ample time reviewing the tenure of Donald Trump and his dealing with Theresa May and Boris Johnson and Britain's reaction to Brexit. Just as Trump shook things up in the US, Brexit did the same in Britain.Churchill defined the 'special relationship' as the affinity between 'English Speaking Peoples' based on a shared love of freedom, democracy, and free trade. But the book demonstrates that it was also impacted by the events of the day and the leaders' personalities.

This book is not about Churchill, ecept it begins with him. it is about the United Kingdom since World War II and how it is adjusting to no longer being a world power. The book begins with Churchill and goes through all Prime Ministers since up to Boris Johnson.. Its premise is the UK is no longer a world power and the difficulty in accepting this. The loss of the empire is accepted by all except Churchill, but the author fells the remedy is greater integration in Europe. This was accepted by some Prime Ministers to varying degrees but now with Brixit and Johnson it has become a major issue. The author favors the UK integration in Europe..To remedy Britains loss of world power status Prime Ministers to varying degrees have emphasized Britains special relationship with the US. The author clearly doesn't think to much of this.I found this book well written and a pleasure to read.

This paperback will be of interest to those wishing to understand the special relationship that exists between the British and Americans since the end of the second world war.I found it an interesting page-turner. I learned quite a bit about the personnel chemistry of number of the leaders in maintaining, or not, the trans-Atlantic bond.