Margaret Thatcher’s first trip to the White House as prime minister was in 1979 when Jimmy Carter was president. In her speech, the lack of warmth between the two was obvious.
Although Thatcher made a point of stressing that the history of the US and the UK would forever be "inextricably intertwined,” she continued with the sniffy joke that “George Washington was a British subject until well after his 40th birthday”.
1981: state visit to US
Things were much sunnier in 1981, when Thatcher returned on a state visit to celebrate her good friend Ronald Reagan’s presidential victory. A large military band played before the speeches began. Their joint message to the world was that they were inseparable.
“When we talked in London just over two years ago when neither of us were in office, I was impressed by the similar challenges our countries faced and by your determination to meet those challenges,” Reagan said. “So long as our adversaries continue to arm themselves at a pace far beyond the needs of defense so the free world must do whatever is necessary to safeguard its own security.”
Some of Reagan’s remarks take on extra heft with the benefit of hindsight. For example, this:
“The Soviet invasion in Afghanistan was a brutal invasion. You, prime minister, took a lead in rallying world opinion against it and for that we commend you.”
1982: Reagan visits the UK
The following year, when Reagan and his defence secretary Al Haig went to Downing Street, the president took the opportunity to remind the world that:
"This great friendship … between our two nations … is stronger than it’s ever been."
The special relationship had its hiccups. But it was in both leaders' interests to portray themselves as united even when gone from office. By the time Thatcher gave an 83rd birthday toast to Reagan on February 3, 1994, she was practically singing hymns to him. (Important to note: this took place at a fundraiser.)
“You reached beyond partisanship to principles, beyond our own selves to our very souls. You reached for and touched, as Lincoln had said so long before you, the better angels of our nature.”
1997: visit to Washington
Thatcher was less poetic but more credible in 1997, when she unveiled the portrait painting A Shared Vision at the Cannon House office building in Washington. Then she used the moment to describe her connection with Reagan.
“Fate decided that Ronnie should be in charge of the great United States when I was in charge politically in Britain.
"We had almost identical beliefs. From very different backgrounds, very different circumstances, we had come to this passionate belief that the world is not created by governments, it is created by the creativity of man. The task of government is to create a framework in which the talents of man can flourish.”
1985 and 1989: at the UN
In addition to her visits to Washington, Thatcher made two significant speeches in New York at the United Nations. The first was at the 40th general assembly in 1985.
There she quoted Winston Churchill – who had been present at its creation in 1945 – and reminded the world that the UN should be a “force for action, not a mere frothing of words”.
Again, she made a speech which looks apposite in hindsight:
“Nor has the UN shown the capacity to deal effectively with terrorism. The terrorist is callously prepared to kill, cripple and wound to get his own way. He speaks the language of human rights even as he extinguishes them by his deeds … There are countries represented among us which harbor and train terrorists.”
Four years later, at her next speech to the UN, she tackled the subject of climate change. This speech was made 23 years ago. In it, she reminded the world:
“We are seeing a vast increase in the amount of carbon dioxide reaching the atmosphere. The annual increase is 3bn tonnes: and half the carbon emitted since the Industrial Revolution still remains in the atmosphere.
"At the same time as this is happening, we are seeing the destruction on a vast scale of tropical forests which are uniquely able to remove carbon dioxide from the air.
"Every year an area of forest equal to the whole surface of the United Kingdom is destroyed. At present rates of clearance we shall, by the year 2000, have removed 65% of forests in the humid tropical zones.
"The consequences of this become clearer when one remembers that tropical forests fix more than ten times as much carbon as do forests in the temperate zones.”