Lord Lothian and American Democracy: An Illusion in Pursuit of an Illusion

Lord LothianandAmericanDemocracy: AnIllusionin Pursuitof anIllusion Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones There is a distinction between those attributes of a diplomat which make himan ambassador from a people, an expert on the affairs and policies of his owncountry, and those less usual ones which make him an ambassador to a people, an expert on the affairs and policies of his host country. On the "horsesfor courses" principle, it has been suggested that, just as one's man in Parisought to be able to distinguish between a Van Gogh and a Gauguin, so hiscolleague in Washington should appreciate the intricacies of log-rolling; inFrance, he must exude distinction, in America, know about the peculiar variants of that country's democracy. Since public opinion is often held to exerta distinctively powerful influence on U.S. foreign policy, and U.S. foreign policyhas been of special significance to Britain in this century, it is reasoned that a British ambassador equipped with knowledge of American society and politics might be well qualified to do his job. 1 The logic of this argument is not incontrovertible, however. Specialist knowledgecan make fools of the wisest men, and in any case cannot overcome allobstacles. Lord Bryce, British Ambassador to the United States, 1907-13, and author of the classic study The American Commonwealth (1888)clearly knew a great deal about American democracy, yet in the words of his biographer "ended his six years in Washington with an inward sense of disappointment. "2 At least one of his successors affected an indifference to American politics: Sir Esme Howard told Washington's pressmen in 1924 Canadian Review of American Studies, Volume 17, Number 4, Winter 1986,411-422 412 Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones that he played golf instead of reading their newspapers but that they would get along splendidly because ''they were just the same esurient, bibulous and concupiscent bipeds as the rest of us."3 This essay is about a man famed not only for his knowledge of American democracy, but also for his own democratic character: Lord Lothian, British Ambassador to the United States from 3 September 1939 to his death on 12 December 1940.Lothian stressed the importance, for the British, of knowledge about the U.S., and was at pains to demonstrate his own familiarity with American history and precepts. 4 While North America had never been his sole preoccupation- he had served the Empire in South Africa and edited an imperial journal, the Round Table-Lothian had indeed acquired extensive knowledge about the U.S. He came into contact with Americans and the U.S. approach to diplomacy when he was secretary to Lloyd George at the Paris Peace Conference. As U.S. correspondent of the Observer and then as secretary to the Rhodes Trust, 1925-39, he made more American friends and increased his knowledge of the U.S. These contacts were important to himas ambassador, when he helped negotiate the destroyer-bases deal (2 Sept. 1940) and laid the groundwork for lend-lease (11March 1941). In fact it is possible to interpret these agreements as the achievement of a man who knew U.S. democracy and in addition was democratic himself. One could point out that in Scotland Lothian had taken an interest in the conditions of laborers in his coal mines, and that he endowed Newbattle Abbey, a workingmen's college. As a diplomat, he cultivated an informal style. Chatting to American journalists. he would roll up his sleeves and put his feet upon the desk. Here was a man who played golfand read the papers-and also wrote for them, and by inference understood his fellow journalists. One could take the argument a stage further, pointing to Lothian's Scottish origin as the fount of his acceptability and of his understanding of the North American viewpoint. Could it be that London deliberately charged Scots with the construction of a new Anglo-American relationship? Lothian's friend. Lord Tweedsmuir (the spy novelist John Buchan), Governor-General of Canada until his death in 1940, importuned President Roosevelt both directly and through intermediaries. Gertrude Himmelfarb has observed of the adaptable Scot as exemplified by Buchan: '"His accent and schooling are a token of national peculiarity, not of...