12-18-2014, 08:19 AM
Quote:The reason for the sudden collapse of British power was the attitude of the government of the USA. Britain bankrupted itself to pay for the war. Immediately hostilities ceased the USA unexpectedly revoked the Lease-Lend agreement and as a result Britain had to negotiate a further huge loan. The British government then concentrated the whole national effort into exporting manufactures in order to pay off the debt to the USA. As a result the late 1940s and early 1950s were dreary and pinched in Britain. Food rationing extended into the 1950s and bread, which had not been rationed during wartime, became a rationed foodstuff in peacetime! While West Germany was being rebuilt by American dollars, the US's erstwhile ally was contracting under swingeing economies. The drive to export meant that little was reinvested in updating the infrastructure and manufacturing plant in Britain. This is why Germany won the peace; its industry had been flattened, but US dollars ensured that what was rebuilt was modern. The last payment by Britain to the US was made on 29 December 2006.
US/UK relations have always been, and will always be, purely a marriage of convenience, nothing more.
