The Pursuit Of Influence

The Second Berlin Crisis which erupted in1958lasted for five years.According to its own actual interests, the Britain formulated somepolicies response to the crisis, which advocated a summit meeting withthe Soviet Union to solve the crisis peacefully, and even tried to exchangethe peaceful settlement of the crisis at the cost of interests of the FederalRepublic of Germany. After the eruption of the Second Berlin Crisis,around the issue of how to deal with the crisis, Britain and the UnitedStates had serious differences and the fierce struggle. In face of thedifferences with the United States, Britain had great influence on Americaby virtue of the Anglo-American relationship. During the administrationof Eisenhower, on the one hand, the Britain firmly opposed U.S.military’s plan, and persuaded the United States to reach the position ofnegotiating with the Soviet Union. on the other hand, Macmillan putpressure on the President, trying his best to persuade the president toattend the summit meeting, which led the President and the primeminister had a bitter quarrel on the summit meeting. But if it was not theu-2plane accident, the prime minister was likely to achieve his goal. Incomparison, in the Kennedy’s administration, the Britain and the UnitedStates have little serious conflict on the Berlin problem. In British opinion,in order to have impact on the U.S. policy effectively, establishing goodrelationship with the new President had become urgent affairs, therefore,before the Berlin Wall, Britain was committed to establish and maintain agood relationship with the new government. At the same time, due toavoiding large differences of opinions within the U.S. government,British began to influence the U.S. policy by supporting the moderatewho hoped to negotiate with the Soviet Union to solve the crisis. For theUnited States, under the tit-for-tat policy within the government, theopinion of the moderate who were will to negotiate with the SovietUnionto solve the crisis gradually accounted for dominant position. After the Berlin wall, British and American opinions are more convergence.Looking through the British policy to the US, we can find that the pursuitof power is its most outstanding characteristic.