| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In winter 1944, Sir John Anderson, senior minister in the government of Winston Churchill, and Wallace Akers, the chief executive officer of Imperial Chemical Industries, tried to initiate an independent and secretive atomic diplomacy that aimed to repair the Anglo-French atomic relationship. At the centre of this diplomatic debacle was a meeting in Paris between Hans Von Halban and Frédéric Joliot. Halban also travelled to Montreal at the behest of Anderson and Akers to ensure the continuation of Anglo-French atomic co-operation. Their actions not only failed to achieve their intended goal; they also brought about the unintended consequence of straining the Anglo-American atomic alliance and exacerbating France's bitterness at the Allies' refusal to invite France into their atomic alliance. This analysis is significant because it sheds light on the understudied area of British atomic diplomacy and increases the understanding of the Anglo-American "special relationship."
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