Harold Wilson – the Labour prime minister from 1964-1970 and 1974-76 – was at pains to paint himself as a working-class hero. Swapping his cigar for a pipe, and espousing the virtue of HP brown sauce, he carefully cultivated an image of himself as a down-to-earth socialist.
Famously, however, he was Queen’s Elizabeth’s favourite prime minister – and no wonder! Behind the pipe smoke we find an imperialist.
Wilson’s disgraceful conduct during the US invasion of Vietnam reveals this most tellingly.
There are glaring parallels between the Labour leader’s actions during the Vietnam War then, and their role in Israel’s genocide today. Half a century later, and Labour still bows to the needs of US imperialism, and serves the interests of the capitalist system.
Imperialist slaughter
The Vietnam War was massively unpopular, sparking protests on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1966 just one in three people in Britain supported the war.
There was also pressure on Wilson’s government from left-wing Labour MPs and trade union leaders. But Wilson had more important people to please – namely the US imperialists who held the purse-strings of Britain’s economy.
Bourgeois historians usually pour sympathy over Wilson for the ‘impossible situation’ he found himself in.
But Wilson’s situation was a world away from the horrors faced by the Vietnamese people, who were subject to over a million bombing raids, and had over five million tonnes of ordnance dropped on their country (of which one third did not explode on impact, leaving the country like a minefield).
In total, two million civilians from across Vietnam, Cambodia, and Loas had been killed by the imperialists. And that’s not even mentioning the future generations that suffer birth defects from the chemical weapon ‘Agent Orange’.
Walking the line
Wilson’s ‘impossible situation’ can be summed up as: ‘how can I hold onto my socialist credentials, whilst supporting a deeply unpopular war?’
Wilson did publicly – and with the White House’s approval – reveal his ‘regrets’ regarding the destructive US bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong in 1966. He even spearheaded a failed attempt at a peace deal in 1965.
But with the global dominance of US imperialism, Wilson had clearly overestimated Britain’s international authority, just like his counterpart in Number 10 today.
Whilst Wilson never committed a single regular soldier to the war, his government carefully supported US imperialism through other means, such as by allowing the US to use port facilities in Hong Kong; supplying them with air and naval weapons; and providing them with intelligence and communications.
And having cut their teeth repressing guerrillas in the Malayan Emergency and Mau Mau rebellion, training was provided by the British to American Officers in jungle warfare.
Back then, the wheels of the US war in Vietnam were greased by the Labour Party. And sixty years later, we see the revolting spectacle of the British armed forces providing operational and intelligence support to America and Israel.
Logic of imperialism
Given Britain’s accelerated decline as a capitalist power since Wilson’s period in power, the current Labour leaders are much less subtle with their bootlicking for US imperialism. But at root the reason for this subservience is the same. And Wilson was deeply aware of this.
Trade union leader Frank Cousins once asked Wilson why he did not take a firmer stance against the war. Wilson replied angrily: “because we cannot kick our creditors [i.e. US imperialism] in the balls!”
This answer gets right to the root of the matter: if you accept the system of capitalism, you must accept the bloody logic of imperialist domination. All the best intentions and pacifist declarations in the world cannot change this fact.
In the post-war period, the US emerged as the strongest capitalist superpower to ever exist. Britain came out of the Second World War enfeebled, with its economy in ruins. The British had to go cap in hand to the US in order to avoid total bankruptcy.
Britain received a fifty year loan of £3 billion – worth a staggering £109 billion in today’s money – at two percent interest. This was not paid off until 2006!
The Americans also stipulated that within a year of the loan starting, pounds should be freely exchangeable for dollars, breaking down the financial fortress protecting the British economy. Thus the former colony had become the master, exercising the economic whip hand over British capitalism.
Reformist betrayals
By following the money, Wilson’s falterings are easy to understand – from a capitalist perspective. Withdrawing all support for the war would have seen the US unleash catastrophic consequences for British capitalism.
And an economy in crisis would hamper Wilson’s ability to bankroll the reforms that made his government so popular. Wilson’s refusal to break with capitalism – rooted in a reformist outlook and methods – created a material basis for his imperialist actions.
Today, one third of all the money which comes into the City of London is American. This explains why David Lammy has been clear Britain will bow the knee to Trump, despite previously calling him a fascist.
For the Wilson government and the Starmer government, the question is the same: how can we keep our masters in the Whitehouse happy?
US imperialism is the most reactionary and destructive force which has ever existed on this planet. Since the end of the Second World War, every single Labour government has bent over backwards to support the crimes of US imperialism.
We need a clean break with reformist betrayals. Only revolutionary communism can end imperialism!
