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For 500 years
our little island Britain

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has punched above its weight
around the world...

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Getting Our Way.

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The means to our success?

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Not just gunboats and commerce,
but ruthless power broking,

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Machiavellian manoeuvring
and plenty of charm - diplomacy.

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Diplomats are the people you
don't often get to hear about.

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It is the kings and queens,
the politicians and the generals

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who dominate the history books, but
this series is about my predecessors,

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who championed Britain's interests
abroad - ambassadors and envoys,

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power-brokers and negotiators.

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You must never forget

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that it is British interests you
are there to promote and protect.

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You are constantly having to
talk to, make deals with,

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make concessions to, people who,
in other ways, are doing things

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you thoroughly dislike
and disapprove of.

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You have to be a bit of a schemer,

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otherwise you can't do
the job properly.

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As Our Man in Washington,
I saw history in the making.

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Now, I'm going back over the last
five centuries to put myself

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in the shoes of different diplomats

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who helped Britain's rise to
greatness...and managed our decline.

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Our diplomacy must always be
driven by the national interest.

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That's easier to say than to define,
but of one thing we can be sure,

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our top priority is, as it
has always been, our security.

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Well, it's the
irreducible national interest

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and this is the minimum

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a diplomat or statesman

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must try to accomplish.

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When I was at school,
I was taught that the roaring seas

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had protected England
from invasion for a thousand years.

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But back in the 16th century,
we were far from safe.

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For Queen Elizabeth I, a key line
of defence, was not the roaring seas,

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but her spymasters and diplomats -

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ruthless, pragmatic men, like Lord
Burghley and Sir Francis Walsingham, 

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who had made it their life's mission

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to confound the Queen's
foreign Catholic enemies.

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What I would give
to have been in that game!

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The nearest I got to it
was playing cat and mouse

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with the KGB in Soviet Russia.

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In 1572, shocking news
arrived from across the Channel,

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where Elizabeth's chief spy,
Walsingham, ran our Paris embassy.

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Thousands of Protestants had been
slaughtered on St Bartholomew's day.

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Throats were slashed
and bodies dismembered.

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The River Seine ran red with blood.

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Burghley called it, "the greatest
crime since the Crucifixion".

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The grisly news from France
tapped into a deep fear

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that a great international Catholic
conspiracy would come together

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to depose Elizabeth
and restore Catholicism in England.

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The Pope had just issued a Bull,
calling for the violent overthrow

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of "this monstrous heretic".
Poor Elizabeth.

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As they said about Richard Nixon,
just because you're paranoid,

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it doesn't mean that
they aren't out to get you.

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The survival of the
nation, no less, was at stake

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and the Queen immediately
summoned a diplomat for help.

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He was a Cornishman
and his name was Henry Killigrew.

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Killigrew was one of a new breed
of professional diplomats,

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key players in the 16th century world
of rapidly shifting alliances,

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cold-blooded assassinations
and devious espionage.

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Elizabeth I might not yet
have had a Foreign Office,

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but she had moved
from the medieval world

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into a recognisably modern
era of professional statecraft,

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where resident ambassadors abroad
kept a wary eye on neighbour states

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in the defence of
Britain's national interest.

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So much of real history happens
behind the scenes,

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where diplomacy
likes to ply its trade.

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These days, ambassadors summoned
home to see the Foreign Secretary

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come here -
the Ambassadors' Waiting Room

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at the very heart
of the Foreign Office.

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It can be nerve-wracking
awaiting orders.

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Eventually, Henry Killigrew's
moment came from his queen.

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Killigrew had earned a reputation
as a troubleshooter,

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whose discretion was such that there
is not a single portrait of him.

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Less than a fortnight
after the Paris Massacre,

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Elizabeth gave him instructions
for a new and vital foreign mission.

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Without even pausing to say
goodbye to his wife and children,

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Killigrew made haste.

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From Paris, Walsingham
had reported rumours of plans

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of a French military enterprise
against England

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and he strongly advised
that steps should be taken

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to shut up what he called
the "postern gate".

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BAGPIPES PLAY

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And that postern gate was Scotland.

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Edinburgh in 1572 was up for grabs.

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A two-year civil war
had reached stalemate

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and Killigrew's task was
to negotiate a settlement

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between the rival Scottish factions.

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Holed up inside Edinburgh Castle

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were the Catholic supporters of
the dethroned Mary Queen of Scots,

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Elizabeth's most dangerous
rival for the English crown.

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We are the Billy Boys!

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Keeping them under siege
was the Protestant faction

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that governed as Regent in the name
of Mary's infant son, King James.

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Why on earth should Elizabeth, as the
Texans say, have a dog in this fight?

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Well, it was already bad enough
that Mary had a respectable claim

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to the English throne, but what
really rang the alarm bells in London

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was the danger of the French
joining in on Mary's side.

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There was an "auld alliance"

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between Scotland and France
against the "auld enemy", England,

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and what Elizabeth dreaded
most of all was Scotland becoming

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part of a Catholic 'Axis of Evil'
on England's doorstep.

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Well, the 'auld alliance' stretches
back to the late 13th century.

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I mean, it had already been running
the best part of 400 years

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by the time we got to Killigrew.

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But, of course, Scotland
had just actually come out of

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a union with France.

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Mary's mother, Mary Guise,
a very, very formidable woman,

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and she'd have had Henry Killigrew
for breakfast, incidentally.

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She'd negotiated a union
with France, so that Scotland

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was in a union with France before
it was in one with England.

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Killigrew made it his business to sow
mistrust of the French in Scotland,

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by building a network of influential
contacts and making sure

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they all heard the news
about the Paris Massacre.

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I mean, this is reasonably typical
of the sort of tradition

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of the English statecraft and
diplomacy being of divided rule,

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so separate your opponents, try to
divide and make the enemy uncertain.

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In fairness to that sort of
statecraft, I mean, you could argue

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that kept an empire together
for the best part of 200 years.

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Before I went
as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia,

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a very wise predecessor
of mine gave me a word of advice

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which I have subsequently passed
on to a lot of younger members

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of the Foreign Service and that
was, "if it moves, call on it".

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And I spent a lot of my time, and I
may say the recipients of my calls

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were very tolerant of it, I spent a
lot of my time just simply in going

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calling on people, not necessarily
to do any particular piece of work, 

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but to keep in contact,

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because you never know when
you're going to need that contact.

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Scotland was a bracing experience
for a Sassenach diplomat.

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Even Killigrew,
a Machiavellian's Machiavelli,

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felt obliged to report
to Elizabeth and her advisers that

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"these men be so devilled
and uncertain in their doings

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"as I cannot tell
what to write of them,

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"but of this, your honour may be
assured, I trust no-one further

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"than I see with my eyes
or feel with my fingers".

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What, so trusting, Killigrew?

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First Minister, what does
that tell you about the way

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in which the English
tried to deal with the Scots?

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Well, it just tells me that
Henry was a diplomat, wasn't he?

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Sent abroad to lie for his country,
so his attitude to the Scots

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was no different probably
his attitude to the French

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or anyone else would have been.

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I think it's a bit much if you're
sent in effectively as a spy

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to try and interfere in the Scottish
succession then to start complaining

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about your hosts, as opposed
to your own nefarious motives.

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The Scottish Catholics inside
the Castle might have been wise

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not to trust Killigrew himself
too far.

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There was also a hidden agenda
to Killigrew's mission,

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a set of instructions that
dared not speak its name.

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An enterprise so hush-hush

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that it was written down
in a separate document.

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These secret instructions
were drafted by Elizabeth's

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main adviser, and Killigrew's
brother-in-law, Lord Burghley.

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You can see from the crossings
out that this was, shall we say,

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a tricky document to write.

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"It is found daily more and more that
the continuance of the Queen of Scots

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"here is so dangerous, both for
the person of the Queen's Majesty,

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"and for her state and realm, as
nothing presently is more necessary

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"than that the realm
might be delivered of her".

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Killigrew was being instructed by
Elizabeth to devise a plan that would

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deliver Mary Queen of Scots into
the hands of her Scottish enemies.

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"Use all good speed, with the most
secrecy that you can, to understand

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"their minds and yet to deal to your
uttermost, that this matter might

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"be rather opened to you, than
yourself to seem first to move it".

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In other words, cunningly
persuade the Regent's party

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to assassinate Mary and make
them think it's their own idea.

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Mary was a threat to the throne
and to England's security.

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She had to go - without the English
queen getting her own hands dirty.

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For Killigrew,
with his strong Protestant faith

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and intense loyalty to the Queen,

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if the nation were under threat,
the end justified any means.

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Softly, softly,
he sounded out the Regent's party,

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headed by
the Earls of Mar and Morton,

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about carrying out judicial murder
on behalf of the English Queen.

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"Give us money and soldiers

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"and only then will we do
your dirty work", they said.

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But Killigrew knew that Elizabeth
would be extremely reluctant

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to get involved in a costly war
in Scotland.

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So how could he keep
the Protestant party onside?

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Killigrew could not promise what
his Queen was unwilling to deliver,

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but he knew better than to
give an outright refusal.

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He disappeared into a fog
of vague assurances to keep his

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allies onside, even feigning illness
at one particularly tricky moment.

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It's a tried and tested weapon in the
diplomat's armoury. Playing for time.

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I'm not sure that being a
Machiavellian, scheming type

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is not a rather good description
of what a diplomat ought to be.

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You have to be very thoughtful,

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you have to find ways to get your
way, to get your country's way,

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and often that means you can't
be entirely straightforward.

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What you must never do is lie.
Once you lie,

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your credibility is destroyed, not
just on that occasion, but forever.

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So you have to be very careful,
but equally, there are ways

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of presenting things
and, perhaps, occasionally

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withholding certain aspects,
which could be considered relevant,

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but maybe you don't want to
emphasise. So you have to be

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a bit of a schemer or you
can't do the job properly.

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As New Year's Day 1573 dawned,

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the ceasefire between the Scottish
factions was broken by cannon fire.

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Mary's party in the castle fired a
warning shot onto the town below.

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They expected military help
from France imminently

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and were spoiling for a fight.

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With Scotland once again
at boiling point,

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Killigrew decided that he
needed new instructions urgently.

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He made a secret trip home.

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The time had come for diplomacy
to be backed by force.

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He had to persuade the Queen
to send guns and troops

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to help the Regent's party
defeat the Scottish Catholics,

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even though they were back-pedalling
from the secret plot to kill Mary.

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Sometimes, a diplomat has to use his
arts of persuasion as much back home

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 as in the country
to which he is posted.

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Getting your government,
or in this case, your queen,

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to accept that you know better
what is in the nation's interest.

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I have to admit that my own
record in this respect

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was patchy at the best of times!

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But you are failing in your duty
if you don't tell it like it is.

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Too bad if that is not the message
people want to hear back home.

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You have to recommend on policy

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and you haven't to be afraid
in your recommendations.

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The worst kind of diplomat

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is one who tells
his Foreign Secretary

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what he thinks
the Minister wants to hear.

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Talking the notoriously stubborn
Elizabeth into anything wasn't easy,

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but Killigrew was a trusted and,
above all, persuasive adviser

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and he returned to Scotland with
10,000 gold crowns for the Regent,

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to be followed by an army
of 1,500 English soldiers.

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The English guns sailed into Leith
harbour and trundled up here

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to face the castle. It must
have been an impressive sight,

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but a sight to fill you with dread

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if you were standing guard
on the ramparts.

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Even Killigrew,
who had once been a soldier,

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got his hands dirty, and helped dig
the gun mounts with pick and spade.

231
00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:34,640
The only time I ever used an
ambassadorial shovel

232
00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:38,160
was to plant a tree
in the embassy vegetable garden.

233
00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:44,720
When the guns finally opened fire,
it took just 11 days' bombardment

234
00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:47,600
before the eastern defences
of the medieval castle

235
00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:49,800
came crashing to the ground.

236
00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:56,960
Thanks to Killigrew's
resourcefulness, astute reading

237
00:16:56,960 --> 00:17:01,520
of the situation and deft footwork,
the Queen's enemies were confounded

238
00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:05,760
and the postern gate shut tight.
It was not a moment too soon.

239
00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:10,160
Inside the castle,
Killigrew found the hard evidence

240
00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:12,240
that the rebels had expected help

241
00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:16,080
not just from the French,
but from Catholic Spain, as well.

242
00:17:20,320 --> 00:17:24,080
As for Mary Queen of Scots,
she never did suffer extraordinary

243
00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:27,120
rendition to Scotland,
but 14 years later,

244
00:17:27,120 --> 00:17:30,360
she felt the
English executioner's axe.

245
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:36,120
500 years on, Henry Killigrew is
sitting on his diplomatic cloud,

246
00:17:36,120 --> 00:17:39,600
observing us from the great
Foreign Office in the sky.

247
00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:42,080
He'll see that much has changed.

248
00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:44,480
Quills and manuscripts have gone,

249
00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:47,840
replaced by strange,
infernal machines.

250
00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:51,400
And the magnificence of the
ambassador in his doublet,

251
00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:55,960
codpiece and hose,
have given way to boring suits.

252
00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,840
But Killigrew could have done my
job in Washington, just as, I hope,

253
00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:05,120
I could have done his in Edinburgh,
because the essential skills

254
00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:07,760
of the diplomatic trade
have remained unchanged.

255
00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:11,440
The ability to negotiate,
to interpret, to persuade.

256
00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:15,840
All of this to get your way
in the nation's interest.

257
00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:31,920
For a young diplomat like me,

258
00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:34,560
the Madrid embassy
in General Franco's dying days

259
00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:39,040
was an exciting place to be,
but it was regularly blighted by the

260
00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:43,800
protocol hell of having to organise
the Ambassador's dinner parties.

261
00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:52,560
I was far too junior to be invited
myself, but I had to spend hours

262
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:56,640
devising seating plans that
reflected the fiendish complexity

263
00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:58,760
of Spanish protocol.

264
00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:03,200
I got it wrong once, when a Duque
walked out of the Ambassador's dinner

265
00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:07,720
because he thought a mere
Marques had a better seat.

266
00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:12,560
The Ambassador's receptions are
noted in society for their host's

267
00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:15,760
exquisite taste,
that captivates his guests.

268
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:19,840
Truth is,
life wasn't a million miles away

269
00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:23,560
from the cliche of the
diplomatic circuit.

270
00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:27,960
Though in all my time, I never
clapped eyes on a Ferrero Rocher.

271
00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:33,200
Excellente. With this Ferrero
Rocher, you are really spoiling us.

272
00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:34,960
Ferrero Rocher.

273
00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:36,680
A sign of good taste.

274
00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:44,400
So does this flim-flam matter?

275
00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:47,280
Diplomatic history
tells us that it does.

276
00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:51,960
The peace and security of Europe
has even depended on it.

277
00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:08,480
It's the capital of the
Austrian Empire in late 1814

278
00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:12,000
and just about everyone who was
anyone accepted an invitation

279
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:13,920
to attend the Congress of Vienna.

280
00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:25,080
The city's population swelled
by 100,000 visitors.

281
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:28,840
The hosts laid on for their guests
1,500 liveried servants,

282
00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:34,480
more than 100 new carriages and 1,200
extra horses, all of them white.

283
00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:41,400
Beethoven was on hand to
compose and conduct the music,

284
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:44,840
as Europe's statesmen and diplomats,
their wives and mistresses,

285
00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:49,240
gathered to join a party which
would last the best part of a year.

286
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:55,440
With just a touch of that
pomp and circumstance,

287
00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:57,240
I've come with my wife, Catherine.

288
00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:04,240
My goodness, I missed my time,
by a couple of centuries or so.

289
00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:07,720
The European Union in bureaucratic
Brussels, this was not.

290
00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:11,560
There were glittering parties aplenty
and, most important of all,

291
00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:13,840
a real sense
of history in the making.

292
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:20,440
The delegates had gathered
to bring peace to the continent

293
00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:22,440
after decades of warfare.

294
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:27,720
Perhaps the most important person
in town was not the Austrian emperor,

295
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:31,160
not the Russian tsar
and certainly not a mere king,

296
00:21:31,160 --> 00:21:35,600
though Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria
and Wurttemberg all sent theirs.

297
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:38,080
He was the British representative.

298
00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:41,240
In my book,
one of Britain's greatest diplomats.

299
00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:51,960
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh,
an Anglo-Irishman in his mid-40s,

300
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:53,840
was Britain's Foreign Secretary.

301
00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:02,000
He arrived in Vienna in 1814
with one guiding principle -

302
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:03,880
that security and peace for England

303
00:22:03,880 --> 00:22:07,680
depended on security and peace
in Europe.

304
00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:16,600
The French Revolution 25 years
earlier had set in motion a war

305
00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:19,520
that saw most of Europe
fall to Napoleon,

306
00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:23,400
before his eventual defeat
leading to abdication and exile.

307
00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:32,560
Now in 1814, it was time
to divide the spoils and,

308
00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:34,720
from a myriad of competing claims,

309
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:39,240
draw up in Vienna a new blueprint
for Europe's reconstruction.

310
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:41,720
Here was a situation where

311
00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:45,640
Europe had been at war for
nearly a quarter of a century.

312
00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:48,120
It's quite a difficult thing
for us to imagine,

313
00:22:48,120 --> 00:22:51,560
because we've not experienced
that in our lifetime, thankfully,

314
00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:55,000
or, indeed, ever since. Although
there has been the two World Wars,

315
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,880
there hasn't been a war
of that length, almost an entire

316
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:03,400
generation in length, of conflict
in Europe from 1792 onwards.

317
00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:07,000
And so the people who came
to the end of that conflict

318
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:11,720
were looking for
an entirely new framework,

319
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:14,600
looking for something that would
mean there would be

320
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:16,280
no more wars in Europe.

321
00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:19,360
So, they were looking for
a very ambitious solution.

322
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:25,600
Behind him, Castlereagh had the
might of the growing British Empire,

323
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:28,840
deep pockets
and unchallenged naval supremacy.

324
00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:32,840
So what Britain wanted,
Britain was likely to get.

325
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:37,040
Castlereagh was our first
great Foreign Secretary.

326
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:41,080
He had to do two things.
He had to keep together

327
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,520
the coalition against Napoleon,
which was always splitting off.

328
00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:49,080
He had to keep it together with
money, with persuasion and,

329
00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:54,720
secondly, when we'd beaten Napoleon,
he had to negotiate the peace.

330
00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:58,000
He had the Russian troops
all over Europe.

331
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:02,320
He had the Russian tsar, a very
strange man, who was insisting

332
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:05,440
on keeping Poland, but also
had all kinds of Christian ideas

333
00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:08,400
about the shape of Europe.
He had to deal with the French.

334
00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:12,640
How do you keep France
as an important European power,

335
00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:16,360
while not allowing her to rampage
again, as she had under Napoleon.

336
00:24:16,360 --> 00:24:20,520
'He had to deal with all kinds of
very tricky situations and people.'

337
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:29,240
Like all good negotiators,
Castlereagh had an eye for detail.

338
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:33,440
He was incredibly diligent and
knew that being thoroughly on top

339
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:36,880
of his brief was the most vital
weapon in the diplomatic armoury.

340
00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:48,480
Austria's spies reported that he even
prepared to the point of practising

341
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:50,760
the latest waltzes with a chair.

342
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:57,000
TRUMPETS SOUND

343
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:03,480
Today, the nearest one gets to
the melee of 19th century Vienna,

344
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:06,840
is the annual Officer's Ball
at the Hofburg Palace,

345
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:10,760
which hosted many
of the Congress's grand soirees.

346
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:19,840
The Congress saw the restoration
of the Bourbon Monarchy in France

347
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:25,000
and a scramble by the moustachioed
scions of Europe's Ancien Regime

348
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,560
to get back what
Napoleon had seized from them.

349
00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:32,800
So, the ambitions of the Congress
were intensely conservative,

350
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:37,640
but the way it set about
achieving them certainly wasn't.

351
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:40,240
The unending round of
balls and entertainments,

352
00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:42,360
the bed-hopping, the pillow-talk,

353
00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:45,080
everybody rubbing shoulders
with everybody else,

354
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:47,960
from the Russian tsar
and Austrian emperor downwards,

355
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:53,160
this was a diplomatic revolution, it
was the start of informal networking 

356
00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:57,720
which, despite all appearances,
was absolutely avant garde.

357
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:07,400
Entertainment is important

358
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:09,760
provided it is focused.

359
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:15,600
I mean, I found one of the most
satisfying ways of entertaining,

360
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:17,280
as an Ambassador,

361
00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:22,920
was if the entertainment
was designed to introduce A to B.

362
00:26:24,120 --> 00:26:25,200
When people have met

363
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:29,600
over a period of time, you know,
they they find it easier to relax.

364
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:31,880
They find it easier
to get to know each other

365
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:34,920
and that getting to know people
is essential,

366
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:38,720
if you're going to reach agreements
which are going to work.

367
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:46,280
If, to quote Churchill, "jaw jaw
was to prevail over war war",

368
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:48,200
the diplomats would have to agree

369
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:52,680
to a generally acceptable balance
between all the competing interests.

370
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:57,760
So, Castlereagh was faced with
a task of fiendish intricacy.

371
00:27:02,120 --> 00:27:05,240
Of course, with such a vast throng
and such a complex agenda,

372
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:09,120
it's normally mission impossible
to get anything significant agreed.

373
00:27:09,120 --> 00:27:12,480
Just look at the European Union,
with its 27 member states.

374
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:16,880
When I was in Brussels, we couldn't
even get the then ten members

375
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:20,160
to agree tariffs on the
import of Romanian shoes.

376
00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:25,360
Castlereagh's genius was
to work the room tirelessly,

377
00:27:25,360 --> 00:27:28,520
to get alongside everyone,
to make even the smallest duke

378
00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:31,040
feel important
and then to cut most of them

379
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:35,680
out of the decision-taking. And
that's multilateral diplomacy today.

380
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:38,040
If you think it is
difficult to get consensus

381
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:40,400
out of the
United Nations Security Council,

382
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,920
imagine how it would be
if decisions had to be taken by

383
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:48,440
the almost-200 members of the
United Nations General Assembly.

384
00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:53,320
As Castlereagh himself put it,

385
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:58,080
"In such a large confederacy,
an equality and community of council

386
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:01,560
"is utterly incompatible
with the march of business."

387
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,800
So though there
were numerous nationalities -

388
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:09,560
the Italians, Belgians, Poles -
jostling for a place

389
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:13,160
at the negotiating table to have
a say in their own futures,

390
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:17,600
Castlereagh realised that lasting
peace depended, before all else,

391
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:20,040
on striking a deal
between the Great Powers,

392
00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:23,400
regardless of who else got
trampled in the process.

393
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:30,080
Now, of course, there were many
controversial aspects of this,

394
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,600
because the solution involved
a strong active role for the

395
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:40,520
major powers in Europe and rather
aggrandisement of the medium-sized

396
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,880
powers in order to create
more of an equilibrium

397
00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:47,560
and that meant the extinction
of some small countries.

398
00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:50,640
It showed in one
of the quotations of the time,

399
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:53,080
"no special tenderness
to nationality",

400
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,160
which meant that people
were lumped together in countries

401
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:59,120
that they probably didn't
really feel they belonged to.

402
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:02,560
Of course, in the long term,
that would create difficulties.

403
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,320
This is often one of
the conflicts in foreign policy.

404
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:10,120
Are you looking for an equilibrium
that guarantees the peace

405
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:14,920
or are you trying to give people
their rights to be citizens

406
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:18,040
of the countries they want
to be in, to self-determination?

407
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:21,000
Those two things
don't always sit together

408
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,760
and Castlereagh was very much
on the side of a balance of power,

409
00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:28,440
of law and security,
rather than nationality.

410
00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:38,680
Back from ball after ball,
Castlereagh burnt the midnight oil,

411
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:42,280
plotting a course through the
well-nigh intractable issues,

412
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:47,480
which kept the parties poised
between peace and renewed conflict.

413
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:50,320
A barrier had to be built
against a revanchist France,

414
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:52,840
which meant a strong Netherlands,
whatever the Belgians said.

415
00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:55,320
An expansionist Russia,
threatening from the East,

416
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,400
had designs on Poland,
where they had placed 200,000 troops.

417
00:29:58,400 --> 00:29:59,680
Poor old Poles.

418
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:03,280
Meanwhile, how to create that vital
counterweight in central Europe

419
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,960
against any Franco-Russian alliance?
And then there was the dangerous

420
00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,480
rivalry between Prussia and Austria.

421
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:13,680
Prussia wanted all Saxony, to
compensate for losses in Poland.

422
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:16,320
Austria would then demand
compensation in Italy,

423
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:18,880
not to mention a kick in the balls
to the King of Saxony.

424
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:25,440
And this was not all.

425
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,440
There was a huge range of other
issues to be grappled with,

426
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:29,880
such as ending the slave trade,

427
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,920
preserving the emancipation
of the Jews,

428
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:35,400
regulating
Europe's integral waterways.

429
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:40,160
If Castlereagh ever felt tired,

430
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:44,040
he was said to snatch an hour's
rest by dozing in the bath.

431
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:55,240
Castlereagh was also expected
to do his share of entertaining,

432
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,360
though his soirees
were notoriously meagre.

433
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:02,960
It is still an essential part
of diplomatic life

434
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:04,720
in the British Embassy in Vienna.

435
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:11,600
Tonight's host is the British
Ambassador to Austria, Simon Smith,

436
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,920
and he's a defender of
"The Ambassador's Reception"

437
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:16,080
against its critics.

438
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:20,120
Simon, Norman Tebbit once said,
notoriously, that

439
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:21,920
the Ministry of Agriculture

440
00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:24,320
existed to look after
the interests of farmers

441
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:27,760
 and the Foreign Office looked
after the interests of foreigners.

442
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:30,040
I mean, what's the riposte to that? 

443
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:34,480
I think the riposte is that
if you don't understand

444
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:38,560
what makes foreigners work, if you
don't understand what makes a country

445
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:42,440
that you're accredited to, what
makes its government do what it does,

446
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:45,760
what makes its people feel the way
they do, think the way they do,

447
00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:50,240
then you're not going to be terribly
good at getting them to agree to see

448
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:54,920
things your way, at getting them
to line up with British objectives.

449
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:58,520
I think that one can make the mistake
that, by understanding a country

450
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:02,840
that you are working in,
you are supporting its position,

451
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:06,520
you are advocating that country's
position. You would never go native?

452
00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:09,040
Never, but you are more likely
to get listened to

453
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:12,480
in advocating that position if
you demonstrate an understanding

454
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:15,360
of where your partners across
the table are coming from

455
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:17,600
and you won't get that
without effort.

456
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:22,280
It is an occupational danger to go
native and, every once in a while,

457
00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:26,280
when I worked in the state
department of the White House,

458
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:29,240
I would see people who began
to see too much of their job

459
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:31,800
as explaining them to us,
as opposed to us to them

460
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:34,760
and every once in a while
I used to take them aside and say,

461
00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:37,720
"Remember you work for the blue
team. We are the blue team.

462
00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:41,720
"It's good to have a take on them,
but your bigger job, quite honestly,

463
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:45,760
"is to make us understandable
to them and to make our case".

464
00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:01,600
As the Congress moved towards
its diplomatic climax,

465
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,440
the entertainments
grew ever more elaborate.

466
00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:15,200
In January 1815, a party came out
to the palace here at Schonbrunn.

467
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:23,760
A grand procession of 32 sleighs
was led by an orchestra.

468
00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:33,800
At the same time, Castlereagh's
fragile coalition of Great Powers

469
00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:38,560
was inching towards a compromise and
a deal that redrew the map of Europe.

470
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:42,040
The significance
of the Congress of Vienna

471
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:49,840
is that it ushered in the longest
period of peace without general war

472
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:52,000
in European history.

473
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:57,200
In the 100 years that followed it,
there were only local conflicts

474
00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:01,320
and never involving
all the powers simultaneously.

475
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:03,840
That was a considerable achievement.

476
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:08,800
So, Castlereagh's contribution
was seminal and his tenacity

477
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:10,840
made it possible.

478
00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:16,480
Castlereagh understood that
for Europe to remain at peace,

479
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:19,320
a balance of power was not enough
and there needed to be

480
00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:23,160
a system of regular meetings
between nations to defuse problems

481
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:26,760
before they blew up and that is
what the Congress of Vienna created. 

482
00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:28,920
It was, to use the jargon of today,

483
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:33,240
a system of multilateral
collective security.

484
00:34:33,240 --> 00:34:37,840
Castlereagh certainly favoured
strong diplomatic engagement

485
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:40,960
with the other powers of Europe,
wanted a concert of Europe.

486
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:44,920
They really saw the guarantee
of the settlement

487
00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:46,960
that he and his colleagues
arrived at,

488
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:50,120
at being the major European powers
working together

489
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:53,960
and being prepared
to actively defend the settlement.

490
00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:58,040
Militarily defend, if necessary, the
settlement that they had arrived at.

491
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:01,360
So, yes, that is strong,
active engagement in Europe

492
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:05,440
and I don't think any British
statesmen have ever been in favour

493
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:09,280
of anything else other than
strong active engagement in Europe. 

494
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:12,000
The debate now is whether
strong active engagement

495
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:15,440
means automatically signing up
to anything that is ever proposed

496
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:19,080
in the rest of Europe or be
prepared to give a lead ourselves.

497
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:25,040
Castlereagh was, of course,
himself no visionary idealist.

498
00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:28,800
In fact, he refused to sign up
to the Tsar's grander vision,

499
00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:32,800
the Holy Alliance, of a united
Europe of shared Christian values.

500
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:37,360
"Sublime mysticism and
nonsense", he called it.

501
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:41,280
For Castlereagh, that was taking
a shared European project too far.

502
00:35:47,720 --> 00:35:52,160
In our more liberal age, the Congress
of Vienna has a terrible reputation

503
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:53,920
for the way the Great Powers

504
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:57,160
rode roughshod
on the smaller nationalities.

505
00:35:59,880 --> 00:36:03,600
After the First World War,
Woodrow Wilson hoped that

506
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:07,400
"no odour of Vienna would
influence the peace settlement".

507
00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:11,360
And David Miliband,
not so long ago, declared that,

508
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:13,800
"Europe cannot have
its destiny settled

509
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:15,960
"on the basis of
the Congress of Vienna".

510
00:36:25,720 --> 00:36:27,400
In his own time,

511
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:31,040
poor old Castlereagh's
reputation also suffered.

512
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:34,320
His achievements were
taken for granted

513
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:38,640
and yet he was blamed for failing to
achieve the impossible - democracy,

514
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:42,960
self-determination for small nations
and universal happiness!

515
00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:46,920
He became the whipping boy
for England's liberal set.

516
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:54,160
And through it all,
he never stopped working.

517
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:57,880
In August 1822, he confessed,

518
00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:01,560
"I am quite worn out.
This is more than I can bear".

519
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:06,800
Four days later, he killed himself.

520
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,840
When the great statesman
was brought here,

521
00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:20,760
to Westminster Abbey,
to be buried,

522
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:24,960
the hearse had to make its way
through a mob of jeering protesters.

523
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:29,160
And could poor Castlereagh
rest in peace? Not a bit of it.

524
00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:31,880
Byron wrote this epitaph,

525
00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:36,800
"Posterity will ne'er survey
A nobler grave than this.

526
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:39,720
"Here lie the bones of Castlereagh.

527
00:37:39,720 --> 00:37:42,840
"Stop traveller...and piss!"

528
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:47,360
Diplomacy is sometimes
a thankless task.

529
00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:11,480
It was April 2002 and Tony Blair
and his team, including me,

530
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,720
had been invited
to President Bush's Texas ranch,

531
00:38:14,720 --> 00:38:17,760
for what the press were calling
"a Council of War".

532
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:19,160
This was a crucial moment.

533
00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:21,920
The big question was,
"Would Blair put British

534
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:26,280
security on the line and sign on
for regime change in Baghdad?"

535
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:31,600
On arrival, Blair was whisked off for
a tete-a-tete with the President.

536
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:34,600
Indeed, for most of the weekend
he was alone - no advisors,

537
00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:38,440
nobody to record what was agreed.
A diplomat's nightmare.

538
00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:41,800
Meanwhile, the rest of us -
Condi Rice, Alastair Campbell

539
00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:45,840
and so on - went off to a nearby
Tex-Mex restaurant for dinner.

540
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:50,640
The President's political guru,
Karl Rove, flew in his bootmaker,

541
00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:56,360
who measured me up for these superb
specimens, suitably emblazoned

542
00:38:56,360 --> 00:38:59,360
and adding at least two inches
to your height.

543
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:04,880
I never did find out exactly what
Blair committed to that weekend.

544
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:08,880
Afterwards, the Americans believed
that he was on board for whatever

545
00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:10,760
they decided to do in Iraq.

546
00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:14,400
It may have been a case of
good personal relations

547
00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:17,080
leading to a hug too close.

548
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:21,760
But, in modern times, there's no
doubt that Britain's security

549
00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:27,120
has sometimes depended on how well
the two at the top really get on.

550
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:42,200
In 1962, just before Christmas,
two aircraft carrying

551
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:45,320
two national leaders
flew towards the same destination.

552
00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:49,640
They were heading for
a show-down that would determine

553
00:39:49,640 --> 00:39:54,320
Britain's international role, in
particular, whether Britain could

554
00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:57,520
continue to have a seat at
the top table as a nuclear power.

555
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:01,960
Elderly Prime Minister,
Harold Macmillan,

556
00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:03,200
spent much of the flight

557
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:05,600
reading Gibbon's
Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire.

558
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:09,760
History does not relate whether this
was for amusement or for instruction,

559
00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:12,560
but the harsh truth
was that the British Empire too

560
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:17,080
was disintegrating. India had gone,
colonies were breaking away

561
00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:20,320
and Britain's recent bitter
humiliation at Suez

562
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:24,040
had underlined our diminished,
vulnerable position.

563
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:27,640
Macmillan would be negotiating
from weakness,

564
00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:29,920
a supreme test for diplomacy.

565
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:36,240
Much more comfortable
was the popular young president

566
00:40:36,240 --> 00:40:38,160
sitting in the other aircraft.

567
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:41,440
Something to drink, Sir?

568
00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:44,640
Yeah, a Bloody Mary, please.

569
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:49,280
John F Kennedy had every reason
to feel pretty sure of himself.

570
00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:52,800
He was, after all, president of
the most powerful nation

571
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:54,600
that the world had ever seen.

572
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:57,960
As Castlereagh and his Victorian
successors had discovered,

573
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:02,080
this makes getting your way
in the world a darn sight easier.

574
00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:07,040
Macmillan staked
his foreign policy on two things -

575
00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:08,760
a close relationship with America

576
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:13,120
and on Britain's possessing
an independent nuclear deterrent.

577
00:41:14,720 --> 00:41:16,680
Now both were at risk.

578
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:19,160
America was threatening to
go back on its offer

579
00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:21,040
to sell Britain nuclear missiles.

580
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:25,880
So the stakes could not have
been higher,

581
00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:29,080
but riding on Air Force One
with the President

582
00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:31,360
was Macmillan's secret weapon,

583
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:34,440
a Brit
with a very special relationship.

584
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:39,400
Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary

585
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:41,520
to the United States of America.

586
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:56,440
David Ormsby-Gore
arrived in Washington in 1961.

587
00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:59,000
He was considered
a brilliant appointment

588
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:01,120
because of his brilliant contacts.

589
00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:05,680
Macmillan's nephew by marriage and
an old family friend of the Kennedys.

590
00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:13,280
When I got the same job
36 years later, Number 10 told me to

591
00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:16,640
"get up the arse of the White House
and stay there".

592
00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:19,760
Not very elegantly put,
but I understood the point.

593
00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:23,720
In diplomacy, access is everything,

594
00:42:23,720 --> 00:42:27,000
and David Ormsby-Gore had access to
the President

595
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,680
for which ambassadors
would sell their grandmothers.

596
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:40,320
Ormsby-Gore was practically
a family member of the Kennedys.

597
00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:44,600
I was a consultant to
the Kennedy administration

598
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:47,640
and he was infinitely closer
to the Kennedys than I was

599
00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:52,480
even though I was technically
working in the White House.

600
00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:56,560
Being his Private Secretary
gave me an extraordinary

601
00:42:56,560 --> 00:43:00,400
and a very exciting insight
into what life was like

602
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:02,520
in what was called Camelot.

603
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:05,360
I mean, these glamorous characters

604
00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:09,120
who piled into the British
Ambassador's Residence,

605
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:11,600
including the President himself.

606
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:20,880
He impressed me immediately

607
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:28,720
as a very intelligent, likeable man
who shared the same ideals

608
00:43:28,720 --> 00:43:33,600
and objectives that Kennedy
and I already shared.

609
00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:49,400
So here we are in
the British Embassy Residence,

610
00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:51,640
3,100 Massachusetts Avenue.

611
00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:54,600
This is where all the guests
would come

612
00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:58,320
when attending receptions
or lunches or dinner.

613
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:04,080
In our time we reckoned we had about
12,000 of them every year.

614
00:44:04,080 --> 00:44:06,440
You'd be greeted by
the ambassador and his wife

615
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:07,920
somewhere round about there.

616
00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:10,800
We'd stand here saying,
"Good evening, how are you?

617
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:13,640
"Welcome to the British Embassy.
This is my wife, Catherine."

618
00:44:13,640 --> 00:44:17,160
After you've done that about
200 times your brain started to go,

619
00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:23,480
and once I called my wife by the name
of my ex-mother-in-law,

620
00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:26,840
but you shake a lot of hands,
you lose your sanity after a while.

621
00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:32,880
This is the great ballroom.
This is how you put networks

622
00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:36,400
of high level contacts together,
networks of influence.

623
00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:42,280
You brought them into the house
and gave them a good time.

624
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,920
That's new...
That picture of the queen.

625
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:48,440
So you go down here towards
the drawing room,

626
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:52,080
this is a very good place in which
to just have a handful

627
00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:58,120
of influential American friends.
You could sit around in a circle here

628
00:44:58,120 --> 00:45:01,760
and have a really good
political discussion.

629
00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:11,520
With his contacts both sides of
the Atlantic,

630
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:15,280
Ormsby-Gore was the perfect middle
man to oil the relationship

631
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:17,680
between President and Prime Minister.

632
00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:23,240
A vital role, because by the end of
1962 Anglo-American relations

633
00:45:23,240 --> 00:45:25,520
were strained almost
to breaking point.

634
00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:31,640
Early in December, former
Secretary of State Dean Acheson

635
00:45:31,640 --> 00:45:35,320
made his notorious speech declaring
that Britain had

636
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:38,120
"lost an empire
and not yet found a role".

637
00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:42,840
Britain, I think, was struggling to
find a role and hadn't at that point

638
00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:48,280
decided whether to join
the EEC, as it then was.

639
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,160
It had a difficult relationship
with the United States

640
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:54,120
over the Suez crisis where Britain
and France

641
00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:57,560
had really been abandoned,
as they might have seen it,

642
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:01,120
by the United States. Had not been
supported by the United States.

643
00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:05,200
Acheson's wild words have
caused an international furore.

644
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:11,440
About the Acheson thing,
Jack, it's Harold here,

645
00:46:11,440 --> 00:46:15,240
Harold Macmillan. M-A-C...

646
00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:21,440
I'm calling from London.

647
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:25,360
Now, look here, this thing
doesn't represent the views

648
00:46:25,360 --> 00:46:27,360
of your government, does it?

649
00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:29,520
Oh!

650
00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:31,080
Oh, goodbye, then.

651
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:37,160
Acheson's scorn exacerbated a row
already brewing

652
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:40,600
between Britain and America over
their co-operation

653
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:42,520
on a missile called Skybolt.

654
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:49,040
This was Britain's main hope
for an independent nuclear future.

655
00:46:51,880 --> 00:46:53,400
Ormsby-Gore was summoned to a meeting

656
00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:56,000
with the Secretary for Defence,
Robert McNamara.

657
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:59,000
There he heard that, while no
final decision had been taken,

658
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:03,640
the Americans were seriously
considering Skybolt's cancellation.

659
00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:09,600
The missile was failing tests
and proving exorbitantly expensive.

660
00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:13,440
For any ambassador,
news like this is red alert.

661
00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:16,680
It demands
an urgent report to London.

662
00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:20,480
That evening, Ormsby-Gore's reporting
telegram was sent off,

663
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:24,400
classified "emergency"
and "top secret".

664
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:27,960
"I said I was sure he would realise
that a decision to abandon

665
00:47:27,960 --> 00:47:30,480
"the Skybolt programme
would be political dynamite

666
00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:33,600
"so far as
the United Kingdom was concerned".

667
00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:37,960
Harold Macmillan was furious.

668
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:40,920
He instructed the ambassador to
make sure the President

669
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:45,920
didn't decide anything
until the two sides had consulted.

670
00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:49,000
Macmillan asked Ormsby-Gore
whether he should telephone Kennedy.

671
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:52,880
Technology had, of course, moved
on since Killigrew or Castlereagh

672
00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:55,360
and it wouldn't be long before
hotlines connected

673
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:57,560
the world's most powerful leaders.

674
00:47:57,560 --> 00:48:01,040
But there are dangers to bypassing
the local ambassador,

675
00:48:01,040 --> 00:48:02,680
as Ormsby-Gore knew well.

676
00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:07,480
A golden rule of diplomacy, that
has remained unchanged by technology,

677
00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:12,160
is to get your timing right
when you deploy your biggest gun.

678
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:17,600
Ormsby-Gore advised Macmillan to hold
off, only a face-to-face meeting

679
00:48:17,600 --> 00:48:20,760
with Kennedy stood any chance
of success.

680
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:25,520
It's very often thought that by
telephoning your opposite number

681
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:26,720
every month or so

682
00:48:26,720 --> 00:48:29,520
a head of Government can do the job
perfectly well

683
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:32,840
that these expensive Ambassadors
can't, don't need to do.

684
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:37,080
The fact is that an ambassador
is a continuity man

685
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:41,280
in constant contact
with the locals

686
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:45,960
and governments have found they
can't do business

687
00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:48,680
without some intermediary.

688
00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:52,360
Diplomats tend to be professional,
whereas much diplomacy these days

689
00:48:52,360 --> 00:48:55,720
is conducted by politicians who
are definitely not professional.

690
00:48:55,720 --> 00:48:59,520
So a good diplomat spends a lot of
time clearing up the mess,

691
00:48:59,520 --> 00:49:02,760
trying to repair things politicians
have either broken,

692
00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:07,560
or trying to put into some usable
form the very broad conclusions

693
00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:12,280
which politicians have reached.
It's a bit of a thankless task.

694
00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:14,520
These days it's
probably much more fun,

695
00:49:14,520 --> 00:49:16,800
much more professionally interesting

696
00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:20,800
in out-of-the-way countries where
politicians are less tempted to go.

697
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:27,040
So it was that in late December,
Prime Minister and President

698
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:31,160
set out for the Bahamas
for the showdown over Skybolt.

699
00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:35,880
It was highly unusual
for a foreign ambassador

700
00:49:35,880 --> 00:49:38,080
to travel on Air Force One,

701
00:49:38,080 --> 00:49:42,120
but Ormsby-Gore's special
relationship got him a ride

702
00:49:42,120 --> 00:49:45,720
and half an hour's tete-a-tete
with the President.

703
00:49:45,720 --> 00:49:48,960
If you ditch Skybolt
the consequences for our relations,

704
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:52,160
and the Prime Minister personally,
will be very severe.

705
00:49:52,160 --> 00:49:56,480
He would be desperately exposed
and the Government might fall.

706
00:49:56,480 --> 00:50:00,160
I fear also that if the British
public think that they have been

707
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:02,440
let down by the United States,

708
00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:06,520
a storm of anti-Americanism
will sweep the country.

709
00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:08,840
As I know myself, the Americans

710
00:50:08,840 --> 00:50:13,440
are not overly sensitive
to the domestic politics of others,

711
00:50:13,440 --> 00:50:16,680
but, thanks to Ormsby-Gore's
intervention, perhaps Kennedy

712
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:20,440
had begun to be persuaded that
it was not in America's interest

713
00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:23,200
to leave Macmillan high and dry

714
00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:27,080
and provoke
a political crisis in Britain.

715
00:50:27,080 --> 00:50:30,760
Ambassador and President
hammered out a deal.

716
00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:34,720
The Americans would not themselves
procure Skybolt, but would offer

717
00:50:34,720 --> 00:50:38,680
to split its development costs
50-50 with the Brits.

718
00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:44,520
Would this generous gesture
of good faith be

719
00:50:44,520 --> 00:50:49,080
enough to placate the Prime Minister
and avoid a huge row in the Bahamas?

720
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:05,120
Mr Macmillan flew into the
Bahamas late on Monday night

721
00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:07,360
for what many of them were calling

722
00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:11,360
the worst moment in Anglo-American
relations since Suez.

723
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:13,160
# Welcome, welcome

724
00:51:13,160 --> 00:51:16,520
# Macmillan and Kennedy... #

725
00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:19,280
Then in the warm sunshine of
this British island colony,

726
00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:23,800
full airport ceremonial for the
arrival of President Kennedy.

727
00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:25,920
# The whole world is makin' a fuss

728
00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:29,520
# About Skybolt
you came up to discuss

729
00:51:29,520 --> 00:51:32,240
# But you can be sure definitely

730
00:51:32,240 --> 00:51:35,760
# We have the maximum security

731
00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:38,720
# We don't mind Russia
saying this or that

732
00:51:38,720 --> 00:51:41,880
# Three cheers for the Stars
and Stripes and the Union Jack

733
00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:45,560
# Yes, I said welcome, welcome

734
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:48,680
# Your visit to Nassau
will go down in history... #

735
00:51:54,120 --> 00:51:56,440
Ormsby-Gore had done all he could.

736
00:51:56,440 --> 00:52:01,200
It was time to hand the diplomatic
baton to the Prime Minister.

737
00:52:04,360 --> 00:52:07,360
Ormsby-Gore briefed the Prime
Minister on the 50-50 deal

738
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:08,840
that Kennedy was offering.

739
00:52:08,840 --> 00:52:11,680
The Ambassador's groundwork
mollified Macmillan,

740
00:52:11,680 --> 00:52:13,520
but he'd already made up his mind.

741
00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:16,080
If Skybolt wasn't good enough
for the Americans,

742
00:52:16,080 --> 00:52:18,080
it wasn't good enough
for the British.

743
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:23,920
The talks were to take place
at a secluded luxury villa, Bali Hai,

744
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:26,200
lent to Macmillan for the occasion.

745
00:52:29,840 --> 00:52:34,680
This is the moment of truth, straight
talking, statesman to statesman.

746
00:52:34,680 --> 00:52:38,840
It's where personal chemistry
can really make the difference

747
00:52:38,840 --> 00:52:41,640
and luckily,
Macmillan and Kennedy got on.

748
00:52:43,480 --> 00:52:48,520
What made Macmillan so captivating
for Kennedy

749
00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:53,080
was that Kennedy was
a bit of a romantic

750
00:52:53,080 --> 00:53:00,360
and Macmillan seemed to him like
a breath from Edwardian England,

751
00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:06,080
where the great and the good were
comfortable with the use of power

752
00:53:06,080 --> 00:53:08,160
but weren't vulgarised by it.

753
00:53:09,880 --> 00:53:14,720
Macmillan was able to play act
the role of the wise Greek

754
00:53:14,720 --> 00:53:17,800
to the sturdy young Roman Emperor.

755
00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:20,400
Face-to-face personal
chemistry is very important.

756
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:24,920
Perhaps more important now because
of the number of occasions in which

757
00:53:24,920 --> 00:53:26,840
they are actually face to face.

758
00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:31,960
The fact that Macmillan and
Kennedy were on those terms.

759
00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:35,520
The fact that Margaret Thatcher was
on bad terms with Helmut Kohl,

760
00:53:35,520 --> 00:53:36,880
the German Chancellor.

761
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:39,520
They do make a difference.
You must try and prevent them

762
00:53:39,520 --> 00:53:42,960
so dominating the scene that
you forget the realities.

763
00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:46,400
I think some of the rhetoric about
our relationship with America

764
00:53:46,400 --> 00:53:48,440
does get out of control

765
00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:52,240
and it arouses expectations
which won't ever be fulfilled.

766
00:53:55,560 --> 00:53:57,920
When the formal talks began,

767
00:53:57,920 --> 00:54:01,160
Macmillan made
the speech of his life.

768
00:54:01,160 --> 00:54:05,120
He talked emotionally about
British sacrifice in the wars,

769
00:54:05,120 --> 00:54:08,560
he charted the historic friendship
between America and Britain

770
00:54:08,560 --> 00:54:13,760
and waxed lyrical about his own
personal friendship with Kennedy

771
00:54:13,760 --> 00:54:18,400
and he made it clear that all this
was at risk if America attempted

772
00:54:18,400 --> 00:54:21,080
to cut Britain out
of the nuclear club.

773
00:54:25,280 --> 00:54:28,960
What Macmillan now wanted was the
new American weapon, that Britain had

774
00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:33,720
no previous stake in, the
submarine launched missile, Polaris.

775
00:54:36,400 --> 00:54:40,800
Proven more reliable and
cost effective than Skybolt, Polaris,

776
00:54:40,800 --> 00:54:42,920
and only Polaris, he argued,

777
00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:46,880
would keep the Anglo-American
relationship alive.

778
00:54:50,600 --> 00:54:53,600
To get his way, Macmillan pulled out
all the diplomatic stops.

779
00:54:53,600 --> 00:54:56,920
Alongside his emotional appeal,
he kept everyone on edge

780
00:54:56,920 --> 00:55:00,120
by repeatedly adjourning
the discussions to consult

781
00:55:00,120 --> 00:55:01,880
Ormsby-Gore and the team,

782
00:55:01,880 --> 00:55:06,080
insisting that no agreement
was better than a bad compromise.

783
00:55:06,080 --> 00:55:10,320
It was a masterpiece of play acting
and of diplomatic technique.

784
00:55:10,320 --> 00:55:12,400
And it worked.

785
00:55:16,440 --> 00:55:20,320
Against all the British expectations,
and against the advice

786
00:55:20,320 --> 00:55:24,960
of his own State Department, Kennedy
agreed to let Britain have Polaris.

787
00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:30,960
Kennedy would not have
done that for the French,

788
00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:35,920
he would not have done that
for the Germans, the Italians,

789
00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:38,920
not even for Israel which has

790
00:55:38,920 --> 00:55:43,640
its own unique qualities
of relationship.

791
00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:46,800
So the fact that he did it
for England -

792
00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:53,680
I'd rather
say he did it for Macmillan -

793
00:55:53,680 --> 00:55:56,840
shows that the relationship
was indeed special.

794
00:56:02,680 --> 00:56:04,560
Britain got a bargain,

795
00:56:04,560 --> 00:56:07,880
a better missile than Skybolt,
without having to pay

796
00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:11,640
any of the initial research
and development costs.

797
00:56:15,160 --> 00:56:18,640
This final agreement was
reached by some masterly ambiguity

798
00:56:18,640 --> 00:56:22,760
which blurred the lines between
independence and interdependence.

799
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:26,640
Polaris would be under NATO
except where Her Majesty's Government

800
00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:31,600
may decide that the supreme
national interests were at stake,

801
00:56:31,600 --> 00:56:34,280
which is, of course, they only time
you would need a nuclear weapon.

802
00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:40,400
What was agreed here at Bali Hai

803
00:56:40,400 --> 00:56:44,760
remains the basis of our security
policy to this day and beyond.

804
00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:47,320
In the 1980s, we acquired Trident,
the successor to Polaris,

805
00:56:47,320 --> 00:56:50,680
on similar terms
and we're still committed

806
00:56:50,680 --> 00:56:55,160
to Britain's remaining nuclear
well into the 2040s.

807
00:56:57,400 --> 00:57:00,400
At the end of the day, our
security is in our own hands.

808
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:04,040
Of course we have the alliance
with the United States but really,

809
00:57:04,040 --> 00:57:08,920
even in the best circumstances, you
should be able to defend yourself.

810
00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:12,840
We had the nuclear technology, we
were one of the first to acquire it.

811
00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:16,120
I think our giving it up would've
been a sign of resigning

812
00:57:16,120 --> 00:57:18,080
from a leading role in the world.

813
00:57:18,080 --> 00:57:20,040
It is the ultimate deterrent.

814
00:57:20,040 --> 00:57:25,560
The security of Britain is the
fundamental aim of British policy.

815
00:57:25,560 --> 00:57:28,600
The threat to security
comes in all shapes and sizes.

816
00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:31,160
Not long ago it was the Soviet Union

817
00:57:31,160 --> 00:57:35,440
and now you could argue that it's
terrorism. In a few years' time,

818
00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:38,800
it may be the threat from
the deteriorating planet -

819
00:57:38,800 --> 00:57:43,680
i.e. the threat will change,
but, all the time,

820
00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:48,080
your fundamental objective
is the security.

821
00:57:48,080 --> 00:57:51,440
The safety of these islands
and the people who live in them.

822
00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:02,680
Ormsby-Gore and Macmillan

823
00:58:02,680 --> 00:58:05,440
achieved a remarkable victory
for British diplomacy.

824
00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:08,520
It cemented our position in the
first rank of great powers,

825
00:58:08,520 --> 00:58:11,920
it improved the relationship
with the United States of America

826
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:17,160
and, above all, it protected our
security in a nuclear world.

827
00:58:17,160 --> 00:58:21,040
You might not have heard of
Killigrew, Castlereagh or Ormsby-Gore

828
00:58:21,040 --> 00:58:23,120
but the lesson of history is clear.

829
00:58:23,120 --> 00:58:28,560
True national security is not
possible without effective diplomacy.

830
00:58:46,720 --> 00:58:47,920
In the next programme...

831
00:58:47,920 --> 00:58:51,200
I'll explore the history of our
troubled diplomatic relationship

832
00:58:51,200 --> 00:58:56,720
with China, beset by rows over opium,
protocol and Hong Kong,

833
00:58:56,720 --> 00:59:00,440
and how it has so often
come down to money.

834
00:59:00,440 --> 00:59:02,080
Moolah.

835
00:59:19,880 --> 00:59:22,920
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

836
00:59:22,920 --> 00:59:25,960
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk