“I must brief you on the mistakes”: When Ronald Reagan Met Margaret Thatcher, February 25–28, 1981

Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan won general elections in 1979 and 1980, respectively, as a result of the international instability and stagflation of the 1970s. Reagan and Thatcher saw their international interests converge as the Cold War reemerged, and they both promised to deliver parallel monetarist, free market, and incentive-based solutions to economic decline.¹ When they met for the first time as world leaders in February 1981, it was clear that Reagan and Thatcher sought to demonstrate a commonality in domestic policy and closeness in foreign policy. Such a show of unity would allow them both to enjoy political cover as they wrestled with economic challenges at home and Communism abroad. However, behind that unity was a much more complicated picture, born out of the fact that in the 1980s the United States and Britain had very different economies. For instance, Reagan and Thatcher inherited economies with high inflation and higher rates of income taxation that they would seek to reduce, but, in contrast to the American case, the British economy was arguably defined by its nationalized industries and subsequent power of the trade unions related to them. Therefore, while the Reaganite and Thatcherite solutions could be superficially similar, they had to differ in important details. As a result, there was the risk that either side would have an interest in disowning the meeting’s display of unanimity. This meeting also raises questions about what summits can really achieve, the differences between rhetoric and reality, and the nature of the early relationship between Reagan and Thatcher and their administrations. Over time, their relationship would develop strongly—albeit based perhaps more on friendship, admiration, and shared philosophy rather than on total agreement about specific policies.² But if they were to reaffirm the “special relationship,” Reagan and Thatcher would need to emulate the successful meetings of their predecessors, particularly those of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, and President John F. Kennedy and Harold Macmillan, and of course avoid the difficult relationships of President Nixon with Harold Wilson and his successor, Edward Heath.³

Thatcher’s first general election victory certainly inspired Reagan and the Republican Party. Following two earlier meetings, in 1975 and 1977, prior to their respective ascents to power, Reagan telephoned Thatcher to congratulate her upon her election as prime minister in 1979. Unfortunately for him, the civil service saw no need to prioritize a call from the former governor of California and a failed presidential candidate, so Reagan was unable to speak with the new prime minister.⁴ However, eighteen months later, Richard Allen, Reagan’s first national security adviser, ensured that Thatcher’s congratulatory message was prioritized and handed to Reagan: the new president-elect read it to his supporters at his victory party in California.⁵ Thatcher’s importance extended beyond Reagan and the Reaganites to the Republican National Committee (RNC). The Republicans needed inspiration following the Vietnam War, Watergate, and Gerald Ford’s defeat by Jimmy Carter in 1976.⁶ William E. Brock III, who had been appointed chairman of the RNC in January 1977, sought to learn lessons from political parties overseas. For instance, the Republicans adapted a Conservative advertisement that showed a young man ahead in a race, but slowed down by the heavy burden of carrying too much taxation, regulation, and bureaucracy. Originally, the young athlete had represented Britain; in the Republican version, the athlete represented the United States.⁷ As Brock explained to the journalist Geoffrey Smith, who was developing his book, Reagan and Thatcher: “There was nothing that even came close to having the impact that the 1979 election in Great Britain had upon us.”⁸

The “special relationship” between Reagan and Thatcher, and their parallel domestic policies, has been celebrated in works of “higher journalism.”⁹ For instance, the journalist Hugo Young argued that Thatcher received a hero’s welcome in America in 1981.¹⁰ Young notes that Thatcher was “a kind of Baptist to Reagan’s Messiah.”¹¹ Historians are only now challenging this consensus with two recent...