Christopher Sandford - Harold and Jack: The Remarkable Friendship of Prime Minister Macmillan and President Kennedy

This is not a book in any way authorized by the estates of John F. Kennedy or Harold Macmillan, nor is it a biography of either man. Anyone interested in reading more about one or both of them will find some suggestions in the bibliography at the end of the book. Instead, I've tried to write a comparative study of the two men, in some ways the odd couple of the Atlantic alliance, whose brief shared time in office (just thirty-three months) saw some of the great set-piece dramas of the postwar era, including the Berlin Wall, the Bay of Pigs, nuclear proliferation, the Cuban missile crisis, a whole host of regional clashes from British Guiana to the Congo, and the start of the long American ordeal in Vietnam. Many historians have touched on the special relationship between Kennedy and Macmillan, but no one, so far as I know, has attempted to place their lives, and the lives of their friends and family, alongside each other and to follow them together in those uniquely charged days. Other than the sweep of the story itself, I can offer only the modest credential of sharing with Macmillan the distinction of an American mother and a British father and of having gone on to divide my life almost equally between the two countries. As a child in Washington, DC, I can remember the excitement of Kennedy's inauguration on a day of truly Siberian cold, and, back in the hot English summer of 1963, like millions of others, I thrilled to the long run of sex-and-spy scandals that seemed to engulf Macmillan's government on a daily basis, and which, along with the coming of the Beatles and one or two other factors, was surely among the birth cries of what we now think of as the Sixties. More than this, I have tried to pursue the story in a spirit of honest inquiry. Some of the individuals or organizations who helped in the research are shown here, and a fuller list of sources appears at the end of the book. I only wish I could blame any of those named for the shortcomings of the text. They are mine alone.

For archive material, interviews, or advice, I should thank the following: Abacus; the American Conservative; the Avon Papers at Birmingham University, United Kingdom; Andrew Baird; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Bookfinder; the British Library; British Newspaper Library; Kia Campbell; Chronicles; the CIA; Companies House, London; the Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth House; Patrick Dowdall; the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas; Paul Elgood; the FBIFreedom of Information Division; General Register Office, London; Tess Hines; the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston; Hansard; Barbara Levy; Antony Lewis; the Library of Congress; the Massachusetts Historical Society; Millbanksystems.com; the Missoulian; Steven L. Mitchell; Mariel Bard; National Security Archives; Renton Public Library; Jill Rolfe; the Salisbury Papers at Hatfield House; Sam Satchell; Seaside Library; the Seattle Times; the Seeley Library, Cambridge; the Spectator; Andrew Stuart; UK National Archives; the US National Archives and Records Administration; the University Library, Cambridge; University of Montana, Missoula; University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington; Vital Records; James Waters; Emily Watlington; and Peter Wigan.

And on a personal basis: Rev. Maynard Atik; Pete Barnes; Hilary and Robert Bruce; Jane Camillin; Paul Camillin; Don Carson; Common Ground; Tim Cox; Celia Culpan; the Davenport; Monty Dennison; the Dowdall family; John and Barbara Dungee; Explorer West; Malcolm Galfe; the Gay Hussar; Gethsemane Lutheran Church; James Graham; Tom Graveney; Grumbles; Masood Halim; the late Judy Hentz; Alastair Hignell; Charles Hillman; Alex Holmes; Hotel Vancouver; Jo Jacobius; Lincoln Kamell; the late Tom Keylock; Terry Lambert; Belinda Lawson; Todd Linse; the Lorimers; Les McBride; the Macris; Lee Mattson; Jim and Rana Meyersahm; Sheila Mohn; the Morgans; John and Colleen Murray; Chuck Ogmund; Phil Oppenheim; Valya Page; Robin Parish; Peter Perchard; Greg Phillips; Chris Pickrell; Roman Polanski; the Prins family; the late Robert Relyea; Scott P. Richert; Ailsa Rushbrooke; Debbie Saks; Sam; the late Sefton Sandford; Sue Sandford; Peter Scaramanga; Seattle C. C.; Fred and Cindy Smith; Rev. and Mrs. Harry Smith; the Spaldings; the Stanley family; Thaddeus Stuart; Jack Surendranath; Diana Turner; Ben and Mary Tyvand; Diana Villar; Lisbeth Vogl; the late Chris West; the Willis Fleming family; Heng and Lange Woon.

And a low bow, as always, to Karen and Nicholas Sandford.

C. S.

Abel, Elie. The Missile Crisis. New York: Lippincott, 1966.

Acheson, Dean. Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department. New York: W. W. Norton, 1969.

Adler, Bill, ed. The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Portrait in Her Own Words. New York: William Morrow, 2004.

Bradlee, Benjamin C. Conversations with Kennedy. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975.

Bundy, McGeorge. Danger and Survival: Choices about the Bomb in the First Fifty Years. New York: Random House, 1988.

Butler, R. A. The Art of the Possible: The Memoirs of Lord Butler. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1971.

Catterall, Peter, ed. The Macmillan Diaries: Volume II, 19571966. London: Pan Books, 2012.

Clifford, Clark. Counsel to the President: A Memoir. New York: Random House, 1991.

Colville, John. Footprints in Time: Memories. London: Collins, 1976.

Crankshaw, Edward. Khrushchev: A Career. New York: Viking, 1966.

Dallek, Robert. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 19171963. New York: Little, Brown. 2003.

Denenberg, Barry. John Fitzgerald Kennedy: America's 35th President. New York: Scholastic, 1988.

Dulles, Allen W. The Craft of Intelligence: America's Legendary Spy Master on the Fundamentals of Intelligence Gathering for a Free World