The Wilson-Johnson Correspondence, 1964–69

Simon Smith has conducted diligent research in the UK National Archives, Harold Wilson's private papers, and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library among other sources, emerging with a collection of bilateral correspondence published in one place for the first time (some of the material is also available in the relevant 1964–1968 Foreign Relations of the United States series). Smith builds on research done on this era by the likes of Jonathan Colman and broader diplomatic and case-study contributions from, among others, John Young, the late Saki Dockrill, Sylvia Ellis, and John Dumbrell. The introduction is in the form of an in-depth historiographical essay on the Wilson-Johnson relationship. Drawing on the rich vein of writing and other works on U.S.-UK relations of the last two decades, as well as numerous biographies and memoirs, the introduction provides an excellent overview of the key issues, developments, and interpretations of the “special relationship” during these...