Harold Macmillan

Born February 10, 1894
London, England
Died December 29, 1986
Birch Grove, Sussex, England

British prime minister

H arold Macmillan served in the British government from 1924 to 1963. During that period, he was one of the first in British government to oppose German aggression in Europe, established later useful relations with other Allied leaders during World War II (1939–45), and then guided Britain through some difficult years of the Cold War (1945–91). The Cold War was an intense political and economic rivalry from 1945 to 1991 between the United States and the Soviet Union falling just short of military conflict. During his period of leadership, it became clear that Britain had lost much world influence that it had wielded for centuries before. The two new superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union clearly held domination in world events.

Born into British privilege

Harold Macmillan was born to an upper-middle-class family in London, England. His grandfather had founded Macmillan Publishing Company, and his father assumed head of the company. His American-born mother dominated his early life in driving him to succeed. Macmillan was educated at Eton, a noted public school in England, and then Oxford University. At Oxford, he became active in student politics, showing off his already exceptional speaking style.

Macmillan's education was disrupted by World War I (1914–18). Joining the British army, he saw considerable combat action. Macmillan was wounded on several occasions, finally sustaining a shattered pelvis in 1916. He returned to Britain for extended recovery lasting until 1920. It left him with a permanent limp. Upon recovery, Macmillan married Lady Dorothy Evelyn Cavendish, the daughter of an English duke. Through her family, he became exposed to the upper class. The couple would have a son and three daughters.

Beginning a political career

With the British Liberal Party in decline, Macmillan joined the Conservative Party, though having liberal attitudes toward economic policy. He and a few others in the party formed a very small liberal wing. Macmillan entered politics in 1923 but lost in his election bid to gain a seat in the House of Commons. He did win the following year and would hold the seat until 1929 and then regain it later, from 1931 to1964. Macmillan promoted his liberal economic policies, calling for some government control.

By the late 1930s, Macmillan was becoming concerned about the expansion of Germany's Nazi Party, known primarily for its brutal policies of racism. He provided fierce opposition to the tolerance of Nazi Germany by British leaders, including Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940). Macmillan's position on Germany was at first unpopular in Parliament. However, with Germany overrunning first Poland and then France by the spring of 1940, Chamberlain resigned under pressure of those opposing his weak policies toward Germany.

Taking Chamberlain's place was Winston Churchill (1874–1965; see entry), also of the Conservative Party. Churchill, seeking political unity in the war effort, created a coalition government of members from different parties. He appointed Macmillan as parliamentary secretary to the minister of supply. By June 1942, Macmillan rose to undersecretary of state and, in November, Churchill assigned him to the British minister post in Algiers, North Africa. His role was to coordinate with American, British, and French forces who were conducting a military offensive against German forces across North Africa. They followed their success in North Africa with invasions of Sicily and Italy, where Macmillan remained involved. During this time, he developed close relations with U.S. general Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969; see entry) and testy relations with France's General Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970).

Post–World War II

Following the surrender of Germany in May 1945, new general elections were held in Britain in July to select a government to replace the special wartime coalition government. Macmillan's Conservative Party lost, and he would temporarily lose his seat in the House of Commons. A special election in November, however, brought him back. He was assigned to a committee as an expert on industrial policy. With the return of the Conservative Party in the 1951 general election, Churchill resumed his role as prime minister. In October 1951, Macmillan was appointed minister of housing and local government; he was in charge of replacing bombed-out homes, a continuing massive rebuilding program resulting from damage inflicted by German bombing in World War II. Achieving great success in a difficult post over a three-year period, Macmillan moved up to minister of defense in October 1954. However, with Churchill's heavy direct involvement in military matters, he found his role fairly limited. In addition, Britain's poor economy called for reductions in the armed forces at the time.

Churchill retired in April 1955 and was replaced by his foreign secretary, Anthony Eden (1897–1977). Macmillan replaced Eden in his former position. Once again, however, Eden, who had been a highly successful foreign secretary, continued to run foreign affairs as Churchill had done earlier. Macmillan was left with little involvement. Later in 1955, Macmillan moved to the treasury department and remained there until 1957. At the time, Britain was suffering through an economic crisis. Macmillan increased taxes and reduced

government spending, which successfully corrected the economic picture of the nation. Macmillan received much praise for his monetary actions.

Prime minister

An international crisis arrived in 1956 that would end up placing Macmillan in the prime minister position. After a period of deteriorating relations with the United States and other Western nations, on July 26, 1956, Egypt and its leader Gamal Abdul Nasser (1918–1970) nationalized, or took control of, the Suez Canal. The canal had been under the control of Britain and France and served as a vital waterway for oil shipments from the Middle East to Western Europe. In November, Britain, France, and Israel launched a surprise military invasion of Egypt to regain control of the canal without first advising U.S. president Eisenhower. Eden and Macmillan expected Eisenhower to support the action. Eisenhower, however, was greatly concerned that their military response might result in pushing Egypt more toward a Soviet Union alliance. Eisenhower demanded an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of British and French forces. With Britain suffering economic problems, they could not afford to jeopardize future U.S. aid and could definitely not afford a war with Egypt. As a result, Macmillan, who in his treasury position fully understood Britain's economic situation, advised Eden to accept the cease-fire. It was a humiliating experience for both Britain and France. It also underscored that British foreign policy was subject to U.S. control. Eden resigned as prime minister shortly afterwards, claiming health problems.

Macmillan was selected the new British prime minister in Eden's place on January 10, 1957. He was selected leader of the Conservative Party twelve days later. An obvious high priority at first was to repair relations with the United States after the Suez crisis. Fortunately, Macmillan was able to build on the friendship he had already established with Eisenhower in North Africa during World War II. The two leaders would meet on several occasions beginning in March 1957, when Eisenhower agreed to sell American missiles to Great Britain for the first time. Macmillan made sure Britain was consistently a strong supporter of U.S. actions in the Cold War. This included sending troops along with U.S. forces to Jordan and Lebanon in July 1958 to protect the Lebanese government from rebels. The British also supported the U.S. defense of the noncommunist government of the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan from possible invasion of the mainland communist government, the People's Republic of China (PRC) through the late 1950s.

At home, Macmillan sought to increase Britain's standing as a world nuclear power by pressing onward with the testing of a newly developed hydrogen bomb. However, the surprise launching of the first man-made satellite, Sputnik, by the Soviet Union in October 1957 showed that Britain was well behind the Soviets in missile development. Macmillan met with Eisenhower in Washington, D.C., immediately afterwards to discuss pooling their scientific resources. As a result, Macmillan turned to a stronger alliance with the United States. In addition, efforts to build its own nuclear missiles failed, so Britain became increasingly dependent on U.S. missile development. In another agreement between Macmillan and Eisenhower, Britain would assist in U.S. missile development in exchange for the United States basing its Polaris submarines in Britain. The meetings between Macmillan and Eisenhower would continue, including sessions in Washington in June 1958, Paris in December 1959, and Camp David, Maryland, in March 1960. Macmillan also visited Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971; see entry) in Moscow in February 1959. He was the first British prime minister to visit the Soviet Union since World War II.

Britain as Cold War intermediary

Though a strong anticommunist himself, Macmillan disagreed with the hard-line policies of Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles (1888–1959; see entry), toward the Soviet Union. As a result, Macmillan wanted Britain to play the role of intermediary in trying to bring the two superpowers together. He believed Britain could play the crucial role in resolving various issues, including nuclear arms control and the long-term postwar status of Germany.

Macmillan particularly looked forward to a summit meeting in Paris he had arranged between Eisenhower and Khrushchev for May 1960. However, only ten days before the summit was to begin, the Soviets shot down a U.S. spy plane over Soviet territory. When Eisenhower refused to apologize for the flight, Khrushchev angrily refused to participate in the summit. It was a major blow to Macmillan's foreign strategy for Britain.

During his first years as prime minister, Macmillan strongly supported the social programs the Liberal Party had established in Britain after the world war. With the British economy in good shape, Macmillan easily won reelection in October 1959. Macmillan proceeded to establish a very close relationship with new U.S. president John F. Kennedy (1919–1963; served 1961–63; see entry) after Kennedy's election in November 1960. Despite their personal closeness, Kennedy preferred not using Macmillan as an intermediary when dealing with Khrushchev. Kennedy wanted to be more personally active in U.S. foreign affairs. Macmillan felt particularly left out during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. For security reasons, Kennedy failed to inform Macmillan of the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles secretly placed in Cuba until just before the rapidly growing crisis became public.

As a result, Macmillan turned more toward developing relations with Western Europe. However, West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967; see entry) distrusted Macmillan's efforts to work with the Soviets, and French president Charles de Gaulle thought Macmillan was too close to the United States. De Gaulle believed Macmillan had abandoned France in the 1956 Suez crisis, when he and Prime Minister Eden had so readily accepted the U.S. cease-fire. De Gaulle wanted to limit U.S. influence in Europe. Adenauer and de Gaulle teamed up to block Macmillan's efforts to establish new trade relations in Europe. They even blocked Macmillan's attempt to gain British membership in the European Common Market.

In December 1962, while seeking Common Market membership, Macmillan met with Kennedy. Kennedy agreed

to sell Polaris missiles to Macmillan for British nuclear submarines. The following month, in January 1963, de Gaulle announced France would veto any British membership into the Common Market. The result was that Britain was blocked from joining the increasingly independent Western Europe during the Cold War. On the other hand, some believed joining the European trade alliance would have cost some of Britain's independence by having to conform to European policies.

The British felt increasingly vulnerable to nuclear attack as the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union was escalating through the 1950s. To ease those fears, Macmillan sought an agreement for nuclear disarmament with the two superpowers. Though he was unable to achieve actual disarmament, Macmillan was finally able to gain agreement on limiting nuclear testing. On July 25, the three nations signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.

Declining political support

In a major foreign affairs achievement, Macmillan guided Britain through a period in which the nation granted independence to most of its last remaining colonies, including South Africa, without major incident. He announced the new British policy in the famous "winds of change" speech in February 1960 in Capetown, South Africa. In the speech, Macmillan announced the new British policy of supporting African nationalist movements and opposed the South African policies of racial segregation called apartheid.

Macmillan began losing popular support through the early 1960s, as the British economy faltered. With unemployment rising, Macmillan had to impose wage freezes and other unpopular measures beginning in 1961. Then a scandal in his government involving one of his cabinet members, British war minister John Profumo (1915–), led to much criticism. Profumo was forced to resign after it was revealed that he had had an affair with a woman who was also involved with a man presumed to be a Soviet spy. In October 1963, Macmillan resigned after undergoing surgery. He retired from the House of Commons in September 1964.

In retirement, Macmillan continued as chancellor of Oxford University, a position he had held since 1960. He also served as chairman of Macmillan Publishing Co. for awhile. Much of his time, however, was spent writing a number of memoirs and other books. Macmillan wrote six volumes of memoirs. In 1984, Macmillan was granted the title of Earl of Stockton. In December 1986, he died on the family estate in East Sussex, England.

For More Information

Books

Aldous, Richard, and Lee Sabine, eds. Harold Macmillan and Britain's World Role. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.

Fisher, Nigel. Harold Macmillan: A Biography. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982.

Horne, Alistair. Harold Macmillan. 2 vols. New York: Viking, 1989–1991.

Scott, Leonard V. Macmillan, Kennedy, and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Political, Military, and Intelligence Aspects. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Turner, John. Macmillan. New York: Longman, 1994.

The Cold War Memoirs of Harold Macmillan

Following his departure as prime minister of Great Britain in October 1963, Harold Macmillan enjoyed a long retirement. One of his key activities until his death in December 1986 was writing a six-volume set of memoirs with personal observations of British government. The volumes include excellent insights into British foreign policy strategies during the Cold War and his interactions with other world leaders. They were all published by the prestigious family publishing company, Macmillan. The volumes addressing Cold War issues include: Tides of Fortune, 1945–1955 (1969); Riding the Storm, 1956–1959 (1971); Pointing the Way, 1959–1961 (1972); and At the End of the Day, 1961–1963 (1973).