The Year That Never Was

Heath, the Nixon Administration and the Year of Europe

Introduction
A Game of Chicken in Reverse
- June 1970-November 1971
Maintaining the Bermuda Spirit
- November 1971-August 1972
On the Front Burner
- September 1972-January 1973
A Man in a Hurry
- February 1973-April 1973
Putting Flesh on its Bones
- April 1973-May 1973
A Dialogue of the Deaf
- May 1973-July 1973. An Earnest of Good Intention
- July 1973-August 1973
An All-Time Low
- August 1973-October 1973
The Party is Over
- October 1973-January 1974
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

"In my view Catherine Hynes has dissected the self-delusions of Heath and his Heathmen with wit and care. Her meticulous scholarship will be an enormous boon to our understanding of Britain in the early 1970s."

Simon Ball
University of Glasgow

"Expecting to wind up the war in Vietnam soon, Richard Nixon, persuaded by Kissinger, began 1974 with a new initiative to re-stabilise the North Atlantic alliance by a rapprochement with Europe and duly declared it to be the Year of Europe … Hynes examines this failed initiative in some detail, giving revealing insights into how Nixon and Kissinger operated, and why Heath sought to scupper the American initiative. Ultimately she is critical of Heath, seeing him as deluded and self-deceiving in his hopes of leading an independent European foreign policy. This is a well written and lucid account of a largely forgotten aspect of Nixon’s presidency and Heath’s premiership."

Books Ireland
May 2009

'This book does rather more than the title suggests. Although it becomes more detailed as its chronological analysis of the period proceeds, it actually provides a study of Anglo-American relations throughout the Conservative government of 1970–1974, led by Edward Heath. … To anyone interested in the Heath government, twentieth century British foreign policy or Anglo-American relations, this book should be an essential reading, a significant contribution to the debate surrounding British policy towards the United States at a key turning point in post-war history. Aside from the masterly grasp of detail, its intelligent analysis of events and personalities and its balanced judgements on how they interconnected, it is – especially for a book that has grown out of a doctoral dissertation – remarkably lucid in style. The author even makes ‘what one clerk said to another’ sound interesting. The publishers, too, deserve praise for producing the book so handsomely.'

John W. Young
University of Nottingham
Contemporary British History
Jan 2010