US, UK and the unbalance of power

Book review of THE CHURCHILL COMPLEX: The Curse of Being Special, From Winston and FDR to Trump and Brexit

Two vignettes present seemingly antithetical views of Anglo-American relations since the World War II. The first is a 1952 satirical primer by the British humourist Stephen Potter on the so-called special relationship between the United States and Britain: “First lessons concentrate on the necessity of always using the same phrases, and using them again and again. … ‘We have a lot in common.’ ‘After all, we come from the same stock.’ ‘We have a lot to learn from each other.’”

The second is the denouement of the 1979 BBC adaptation of John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, in which