[frogstamper]

I don't think Cameron would have made the "we were the junior partner in 1940 whilst we were fighting the Nazis" had he been in Britain, weather it was a genuine mistake or weather his surroundings coloured his statement, surely there can be no doubt that prior to Dec 40 America played no active part in WW2, ergo our only partners were the then dominions.
Obviously as the war went on the US became by far the senior partner, by the last months of the war when the "big three" met at Yalta it must have become ever more apparent to Churchill the real big players were Roosevelt and Stallin, Britain was almost bankrupt at this stage.
Just a point while we are on this subject about the dopey "special relationship", Canada believes it has a special relationship with the US which their politicians wheedle into joint statements, South Korea also has a special relationship with the US as does Japan.
It is cringingly embarrassing every time a British PM meets the President we have to roll out this tired old claim, whatever happens we will always be politically close to the US, it has been and will continue to be beneficial for both of us.

Originally Posted by BBKing

Thinking about Xaccers point, I think where he's making his error is in assuming the US and UK had a special relationship in 1940 - we didn't, it was a product of the war and the post-war realignment, particularly the UKUSA intel agreement and the nuclear secrets deals. Before the mid-20th century the dominant power in the world was Britain and the US were very much an inward looking country concentrating on their own deveopment and with a fair sprinkling of prominent Anglophobes, including John F Kennedy's father and Charles Lindbergh, who was a bit of an anti-Semite who'd met Hitler. If you've got a moment, look up why Churchill sent Roald Dahl to New York to literally **** the US into liking Britain more.

So in 1940 we weren't 'partners' with the US in any way relevant to the state of affairs from 1941 to the present, so there wasn't a question of being 'junior' (in fact, if such a thing had existed we would have been arguably the senior partner, given that the US military was small and rather localised and we had the Royal Navy and the Empire).

The US ended up very much the senior partner due to mobilising its industrial and scientific capacity and population, but that was all post-December 1941 and the War from then onward effectively became a slug-fest between the USSR and Germany with the US backing the Soviets. In 1940 it was us, our Empire (Canada, New Zealand and Australia) and the exiled occupied countries versus Hitler. Even the Eagle Squadrons (privately organised US aircrew fighting for personal reasons) weren't around until 1941, although a few US pilots fought in 1940.

For interest, the population of the US in 1940 was 132 million. The UK : about 47 million. Throw in the Empire (particularly India, which had about 350 million at independence, Canada had 11.5 million, Australia 7 million, NZ 1.6 million) and it's clear we'd actually have a pretty fair claim to be the senior partner.

Still, it's nice to know the Prime Minister's expensive private education didn't include any of these facts.

Excellent post.