EN
The opinion about the special relations between United Kingdom and the US has become so firmly established that the rough path leading towards their emergence is often simply forgotten. The tendency to derive the relation in question from a linguistic or cultural community simplifies the complex issue. The same holds true for the view that their origin was an unavoidable consequence of cooperation dating back to the Second World War. On the other hand, it is true that during the war and after its end the number of essential differences between the two states was considerable: the attitude towards American aid within the lend-lease programme during the last stage of the war, the attitude towards British colonial rule in the world, Jewish settlements in Palestine and the fate of Palestine after the British mandate ended, etc. At the same time, both sides of Atlantic witnessed the appearance of a conviction about the need to cooperate in blocking the expansion of the Soviet Union and the communist system in Europe and other parts of the world. Joint interests, together with other factors such as British fear of an American return to isolationism, and in the USA - a readiness to exploit heretofore-British influence all over the world, became the reason why the end of the 1940s was marked by a rise of a special partnership involving the two states, rendered even more exceptional by a linguistic and cultural community.