Neville Chamberlain and Strategic Relations with the US During his Chancellorship

The standard appreciation of Neville Chamberlain's attitude towards the United States and its relationship to Britain's strategic position in the interwar most often begins its analysis with his becoming Prime Minister in 1937. Those works make it appear as if the man never considered what the strategic worth of the United States was until that moment. This article argues that to do so misses the vital influences and the legacy of Chamberlain's important formative years as Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was in that role, and in particular during the confrontational era of negotiations concerning war debts in the period between 1932 and 1934, that his perceptions of the worth of the United States were influenced greatly. This article hopes to redirect future studies of Chamberlain's strategic thinking toward the idea of looking at the formulation of that strategic thinking in a more comprehensive fashion.