Gill Bennett

Formerly Chief Historian of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Senior Editor of the FCO’s official history of postwar foreign policy, Documents on British Policy Overseas, 1995-2005. She was a Visiting Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 2002-03 and formerly Assistant Editor of Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939.

What’s the Context? The decision to build a British atomic bomb, 8 January 1947

Gill Bennett, 7 January 2022 - Atomic Weapons, Defence and conflict, FCDO Historians, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, Past prime ministers, What's the context? series

We’ve got to have this thing over here, whatever it costs. We’ve got to have the bloody Union Jack on top of it. “This thing” as British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin put it, was the Atomic Bomb. Bevin was quoted …

What’s the Context? Occupying Powers sign Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin, 3 September 1971

Gill Bennett, 3 September 2021 - Defence and conflict, FCDO Historians, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

The most that we can say is that we have made the best of a bad bargain, not that we have got a fair deal (Prime Minister Edward Heath, 1 September 1971) Fifty years ago, Ambassadors representing the 4 Occupying …

What's the Context? Signature of the Atlantic Charter, 14 August 1941

Gill Bennett, 28 July 2021 - Defence and conflict, FCDO Historians, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, Past prime ministers, Second World War, What's the context? series

The principles set out in the Atlantic Charter eighty years ago remain key to the global vision shared by the UK and US. But its terms also contained the roots of  international tensions that persist today: for example in relation …

What’s the Context? Winston Churchill’s ‘Sinews of Peace’ speech, Fulton, 5 March 1946

Gill Bennett, 5 March 2021 - FCDO Historians, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, Second World War, What's the context? series

Now, at this sad and breathless moment, we are plunged in the hunger and distress which are the aftermath of our stupendous struggle. Though no longer Prime Minister, Winston Churchill’s speech at Fulton on 5 March 1946 packed a formidable …

What’s the Context? Signing the Anglo-American Financial Agreement, 6 December 1945

Gill Bennett, 7 December 2020 - FCDO Historians, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

The American Congress and the American people have never accepted any literal principle of equal sacrifice, financial or otherwise, between all the allied participants. Indeed, have we ourselves? Lord Keynes, defending the Agreement in the House of Lords, 18 December …

What’s the context? VJ Day, 15 August 1945

Gill Bennett, 14 August 2020 - Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

VJ Day brought the Second World War to an end, but also brought many challenges for the future, for the victors as well as the defeated.

What’s the context? Opening of the Potsdam Conference, 17 July 1945

Gill Bennett, 17 July 2020 - Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

On 17 July 1945 the last of the great tripartite wartime conferences between the US, the UK and Russia opened at Potsdam, near Berlin. All the major issues facing the postwar world were discussed there.

What’s the context? 25 June 1950: outbreak of the Korean War

Gill Bennett, 25 June 2020 - Defence and conflict, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

The outbreak of the Korean War on 25 June 1950 caught Western governments by surprise, despite warning signs. Western strategists had assumed that North Korea was a Soviet puppet, and that no one wanted a war.

What’s the context? 8 May 1945: VE Day, the end of the war in Europe

Gill Bennett, 7 May 2020 - Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

VE Day in 1945 was the cause of much celebration. But in a broader global context, many conflicts persisted and the future remained uncertain.

What’s the Context? Sentencing of atomic spy Klaus Fuchs, 1 March 1950

Gill Bennett, 2 March 2020 - Foreign affairs and diplomacy, Foreign Office Historians, What's the context? series

The conviction of atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs on 1 March 1950 for spying for the Soviet Union put a strain on Anglo-American nuclear co-operation, in the context of a broader divergence of views on foreign policy priorities.

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