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Bletchley Park

E119 - Forging a Special Relationship

Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park

History

4.8177 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2021

⏱️ 84 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

March 2021 

In March 1946, as an ‘Iron Curtain’ was descending across Europe, in post-war London a document was signed that to this day is the basis of the most important and longest intelligence relationship that the UK has. But that Special Relationship with the USA didn’t suddenly begin 75 years ago; it was the culmination of five years of wartime collaboration.

In this episode Podcast Producer, Mark Cotton, and our Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon, go back to February 1941 and look at each of the milestones that led up to the signing of the UKUSA Agreement – five years that forged a Special Relationship.

Special thanks to Steven Eric Wilson and Mr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.

Image ©Bletchley Park Trust 2021

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #GCHQ,

Transcript

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0:00.0

The

0:07.0

The From the home of the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.

0:38.8

Welcome to the March 2021 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast.

0:44.6

Forging a Special Relationship.

0:48.0

In March 1946, as an iron curtain was descending across Europe,

0:52.7

in post-war London, a document was signed that to this day

0:55.9

is the basis of the most important and longest intelligence relationship

0:59.9

that the UK has.

1:01.8

But that special relationship with the USA didn't suddenly begin 75 years ago,

1:06.9

it was the culmination of five years of wartime collaboration.

1:11.7

In this episode, podcast producer Mark Cotton and our research historian, Dr David Kenyon,

1:17.5

go back to 1941 and look at each of the milestones that led up to the signing of the Yucosa Agreement,

1:24.2

five years that forged a special relationship.

1:28.6

Special thanks go to Stephen Eric Wilson and Mr Ben Thompson for voicing our archival documents.

1:42.6

The reason for this episode, David, is because we've got a significant anniversary coming up, haven't we?

1:49.0

We have indeed.

1:49.8

Fifth of March this year will be the 75th anniversary of the so-called Ucusa Agreement, the UK-USA Agreement.

1:58.1

And this is a very significant moment in the history of the UK-US intelligence

2:03.6

sharing relationship. But the story doesn't start there, does it? The story actually starts

2:08.1

five years before that with the famous visit of the first four American intelligence officers

2:13.2

to Bletchley-Pud. It does. We've just had the 80th anniversary of an incident that took place in

2:18.7

1941, on February 8th, 1941, in fact, which was the so-called sink-off visit, where the first

...

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