Harold Macmillan is the 65th Prime Minister of Great Britain. This is a popular English politician who was part of the conservative party. He led the British government from 1957 to 1963. During his reign, the world was in a difficult political situation, the confrontation of two superpowers - the USSR and the USA - escalated to the limit, in fact, the world was on the verge of World War III, and many believed that everything would start with nuclear strikes. Leaving his political career, Macmillan began to lead the publishing house of the same name. In 1981, he was elected an honorary member of the British Academy.
Prime Minister's biography
Harold Macmillan was born in 1894. He was born in Chelsea, was from among English aristocrats, bore the title of Earl of Stockton.
His career progression can be traced back to 1924, when he became a member of the House of Commons, one of the chambers of the British Parliament.
In 1945, Harold Macmillan received the post of Minister of Aviation in the government of Winston Churchill, this happens at the very end of World War II, in 1945. In the future, he oversees the power block. In 1954 he became Minister of Defense, and a year later received the portfolio of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. True, Harold Macmillan is not responsible for the external relations of Great Britain.
Soon he becomes Chancellor of the Treasury.
Prime Minister
The policy of Harold Macmillan, which he pursued in ministerial posts, impressed many of his supporters. Therefore, he was reasonably considered one of the contenders for the post of leader of the Conservative Party. Moreover, Sir Anthony Eden, who was the Prime Minister of Great Britain at that time, failed after failure.
Eden took the prime minister's chair in 1955, immediately after Winston Churchill. But he could not stay at the head of the British government for a long time. Problems have been outlined in both domestic and foreign policy. In 1956, the Suez crisis occurred. In October, an international conflict began, the main purpose of which was to determine the status of the Suez Canal administration. The situation became critical after France, Great Britain and Israel launched military operations against Egypt.
The aggressor countries were immediately criticized by the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Nations. The confrontation turned out to be bloody, primarily for the Egyptians, who lost about 1,500 soldiers and officers and about 3,000 civilians killed. The British sent a corps of 45 thousand people to the Middle East, 16 did not return to their homeland.
Under pressure from the international community, the conflict was settled by March 1957. It ended without any territorial changes from the opposing parties. In the UK, such an outcome was considered disastrous, experts and political scientists noted that the Suez Canal was a demonstration of the complete economic and strategic dependence of the UK on the United States.
Eden’s problems were not limited to this, it was restless inside the country. Dissatisfied citizens staged mass demonstrations and protests, which as a result forced him to resign. Harold Macmillan was elected to the post of leader of the Conservative Party , a brief biography of which is presented in this article. Automatically, he was appointed Queen of Great Britain by the Prime Minister.
Nuclear safety issues
Macmillan took charge of the British government on January 10, 1957. There was a cold war in the world, an arms race, it was urgent to address the issues of British nuclear safety.
In February 1958, he managed to conclude an Anglo-American agreement on the deployment of American missiles in Great Britain, in May the British conducted the first hydrogen bomb tests in history , joining the arms race, declaring themselves to be an influential state.
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan also sought to address the issue of nuclear disarmament. To this he was forced by mass protests in the country. In January 1958, the so-called campaign for nuclear disarmament, led by Russell, began in April, the first campaign of peace supporters took place, which went from London to the atomic center of Great Britain, located in Oldhamston.
In March 1962, a large-scale sit-in was held in London against the use and possession of nuclear weapons by world powers. In foreign and domestic politics, Harold Macmillan primarily had to resolve issues one way or another related to the nuclear potential of the powers.
Agreement between the USSR and the USA
His obvious achievements include the agreement on the access of Great Britain to American nuclear missiles, as well as the participation of British scientists and government members in the development of the Soviet-American agreement on a partial test ban. The fact that at least a nuclear arms race must be stopped was becoming obvious to everyone.
The agreement between the USSR and the USA, in which Great Britain participated, was concluded in 1963. This is also the merit of Harold Macmillan, whose photo at that time was published by many media. Most likely, this could have been done earlier, all the necessary documents were ready by 1960, but the signing of the agreement had to be postponed due to an international scandal. On May 1, 1960, Soviet air defense systems shot down an U-2 American spy plane, which was flown by pilot Francis Gary Powers, over Sverdlovsk. He performed intelligence missions for the CIA.
The pilot survived, a Soviet court sentenced him to ten years in prison for espionage. He spent a year and a half in a prison known as the Vladimir Central, after which he was exchanged for the Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel discovered by the Americans.
After the conclusion of this agreement, other European countries began to distrust the UK, seriously fearing the penetration of American nuclear weapons into Europe. A resonant gesture was the veto on the UK’s accession to the European Economic Community, French President Charles de Gaulle made this statement.
Harold Macmillan's domestic policy
During Macmillan’s tenure as prime minister, strong economic growth began. This brought additional points to the conservatives in the next election, and in 1959 they achieved a significant advantage in the House of Commons, with which Macmillan himself once began his career.
This period includes the famous phrase of the hero of our article, addressed to the British: "So good you have never been!"
Foreign policy
In the international arena, Macmillan had a lot of contact with African states. In 1960, he paid an official visit to Nigeria, Ghana, and Rhodesia. The process of decolonization was actively going on in the world, namely 1960 is called the Year of Africa, because it was then that a large number of countries managed to gain independence, freeing themselves from the protectorate of European powers.
Great Britain had a large number of colonies, so in the external arena it was necessary to pursue a balanced international policy so that, on the one hand, not to resist the inevitable changes, and on the other hand, not to lose face in the eyes of foreign partners.
In February 1960, Macmillan made it to South African Cape Town. Speaking to the crowd, he noted that the wind of change blows over the African continent, which Britain has to reckon with. This is the most accurate formulation of what English politicians experienced in those years.
As a result, 1960 was a turning point for the entire continent, a large number of African colonies officially gained independence, and in literature this year has since become known as the Year of Africa.
Night of long knives
In managing the cabinet and communicating with his subordinates, Macmillan was distinguished by the most rigid leadership style. Later he was adopted by the 71st British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who led the government from 1979 to 1990.
One of his resonant decisions was the so-called British “Night of the Long Knives”, when Macmillan changed his entire cabinet. Feeling that after five years of work, his office began to virtually “mold” from the inside, he decided to take a risky step, dismissed 7 high-ranking members of the cabinet in an instant (this was a third of the total composition of the government).
However, many experts note that his calculation did not work. It was not possible to quickly heal the government and strengthen its own power. Concerned ministers began to conflict with each other, reporters learned about the scandals.
Case of Profumo
In the early 1960s, Macmillan’s cabinet was shaken by a political scandal that went down in history as the Profumo affair. The millionaire John Profumo, who at that time held the post of Minister of War in the office of the hero of our article, officially stated that he was not in a sexual relationship with 19-year-old dancer Christine Keeler when he was accused of this.
The accusations were serious, as Profumo was married at that time. Irrefutable evidence was soon presented of his betrayal, as a result he was forced to admit that he had lied. The scandal turned out to be especially resonant when it became known that Keeler, in parallel with Profumo, entered into an intimate relationship with the assistant naval attache of the USSR Embassy in Great Britain Evgeny Ivanov. The press considered that she could transmit valuable information from the English minister to the representative of the country of the Soviets.
Resignation
In October 1963, Macmillan resigned. Officially, he left due to health problems, doctors diagnosed him with prostate cancer. As it turned out later, the doctors were wrong, the politician lived another 23 years.
Macmillan died in December 1986 in Sussex, he was 92 years old. Harold Macmillan's wife Dorothy spent 46 years with her husband in marriage. She died in 1966 of a heart attack.