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Chapter 1
When I was a little boy I read about a Fairy Princess-and there she is.
-Harry S. Truman, October 31, 1951
Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, was twenty-five years old and much closer than she desired to her destiny of inheriting the British throne when she became the first member of the royal family to fly across the Atlantic. Her historic transatlantic flight on October 8, 1951, together with her dashing naval officer husband, Philip, was not, however, part of the original plan for the young royals' first North American tour. They were initially scheduled to travel on an ocean liner like her father, George VI, and mother, Queen Elizabeth, had done twelve years earlier. But the Edinburghs' departure was dramatically postponed just two days before they were due to set sail when the King's doctors decided that he should undergo an emergency lung operation. This caused them to delay the trip and saw Elizabeth's role as heiress presumptive thrust into the spotlight, as she joined a council of state with other senior royals to work out how to relieve her father of official duties during his convalescence. Wartime searchlights shone a victory V over Whitehall after the King survived a "lung resection," but neither the nation nor, initially, the monarch himself were told that cancer had been diagnosed. Nor was the public informed that the operation entailed the removal of the King's entire left lung.
Three days afterward, Buckingham Palace issued a bulletin warning that "although no complications have arisen so far, there will inevitably be a period of some anxiety for the next week or ten days." It was progress enough for Elizabeth's North American trip to go ahead, and her itinerary ended up being pushed back by just one week thanks to a flight on a Boeing Stratocruiser operated by the British Overseas Airways Corporation. This modern advance required extra security measures: Royal Navy warships patrolled the Atlantic every seven hundred miles along the flight path.
It was clear even before the King's operation that Elizabeth was being readied for her future role as Queen: she had started to receive confidential governmental papers in June 1950. Throughout the visit The Times of London arrived by airmail daily so she could keep up-to-date with current affairs. The fifty-five-year-old King's fragile condition was always in the background, while articles in the Canadian press pointing out that she looked "a bit wan" and "her broad, flashing smile wasn't so much in evidence" suggested the pressures building on the young princess. Her father had been too sick to see her off at the airport when she bade farewell to her two infant children, Charles and Anne. In his briefcase Martin Charteris, the princess's private secretary, carried paperwork for the accession should it become necessary. It was a time of upheaval for the United Kingdom at home and abroad: not only was the King in perilous health, but his empire was crumbling, and while Elizabeth was on her travels, the postwar socialist British government of Clement Attlee was unexpectedly ejected in a snap election. Wartime prime minister Sir Winston Churchill was back and would prove a pillar of support when the accession came.
Truman was an admirer of Churchill, whom he hosted in 1946 for one of his most famous speeches warning of the "Iron Curtain" of Soviet dominance over central and eastern Europe. It was also in this speech that Churchill argued for the core importance to world peace of "a Special Relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States." This he envisaged as cooperation "in the air, on the sea, all over the globe and in science and in industry, and in moral force" to provide "an overwhelming assurance of security." The phrase stuck and from that moment on, the strength of the "Special Relationship" became the defining yardstick of transatlantic ties.
The stage for Princess Elizabeth's Washington sojourn was set that summer when Margaret Truman, the twenty-seven-year-old only child of the president, visited London. Charming and fashionable, Margaret was hailed as "America's Princess Margaret" by some British commentators, who saw parallels with the flamboyant younger daughter of King George VI. Margaret Truman was introduced to Princess Elizabeth and her twenty-year-old sister at a US embassy party-where, American reporters noted, she gave "a deep and lovely curtsy." A couple of days later she watched, entranced, from diplomatic seats at Horse Guards Parade in central London as Elizabeth, riding sidesaddle, received the royal salute and inspected the troops for the first time at the Trooping the Colour ceremony while standing in for her ailing father, in another sign of George VI's growing frailty.
"I have never seen anything so thrilling or so perfect," the president's daughter said afterward.
Clifton Truman Daniel, Margaret's son, remembers his mother telling him how she was invited to lunch with Princess Elizabeth where Philip proceeded to feed the corgis under the table when his wife was not looking.
That October, the glamorous young royal couple's tour across Canada in their ten-carriage special train drew larger and larger crowds as they went along: a million people turned out in Toronto-twice the number drawn by the King and Queen in 1939-while in Montreal the total attendance of spectators along the couple's motorcade route through the city was estimated at 1.5 million. Following the publication of a photograph of Princess Elizabeth in Canada wearing "sensible brogues" for a walkabout, there was a run on the footwear at Saks Fifth Avenue.
As expectation built in the US, the princess was paid the ultimate tribute by one of the queens of Hollywood, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, whose words were syndicated to a readership of thirty-five million Americans. "She's doing a superb public relations job," Hopper wrote of Elizabeth twelve days into the Canadian tour. "I'd never know she was the same girl I met in London in '45. Then she was shy, aloof, unsmiling but very gracious. . . . Elizabeth and Philip are like a storybook couple, and this disillusioned old world can use one such pair."
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All was not well with the fading British Empire and its sickly king, however. Less than forty-eight hours after the young couple arrived in Canada, Buckingham Palace announced that Elizabeth and Philip would stand in for George VI on his planned tour of Australia early the following year, due to his continued need for rest. A week before their arrival in Washington, DC, an Italian doctor privy to secret details of the King’s operation revealed in the press what many had suspected and feared-that Elizabeth’s father had lung cancer.
After flying into the US capital from Montreal with the Royal Canadian Air Force, Elizabeth descended the steps from the plane first, followed by Philip, to be met by the president, First Lady Bess Truman, and their daughter. She received a twenty-one-gun salute-not an honor that she was entitled to but, as the American media enthusiastically reported, "the US gave it to her anyway just in the name of romance." During his formal greeting at the airport Truman suggested a longer visit next time, more like the extensive tour of Canada. "I am sure that would make our good relations and our strong friendship with the British people even better than they are now," he said.
The president had met King George VI on two occasions: on the six-day royal tour of the US in 1939, during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and again in the southern British port of Plymouth in 1945, when Truman, by then president, was on the way back from the Potsdam conference of victorious war time leaders. But on this day the talk was less of war and more of family matters. Truman told the princess: "I was most happy to hear that the King had recovered so promptly, so that you could make this trip." He departed from his prepared words to ad-lib: "Margaret tells me that whenever anyone becomes acquainted with you, they immediately fall in love with you."
Elizabeth, sticking to her prepared script, told the sixty-seven-year-old president and millions more watching on TV and listening live on radio, "Free men everywhere look towards the United States with affection and with hope. The message that has gone out from this great capital city has brought hope and courage to a troubled world."
She was also grateful for the kind words about the King. "I want you all to know how deeply my family and our whole country was moved by the sympathy-and might I say affection-shown to my father, the King, by the people and press of the United States during his recent illness." The Des Moines Register recorded that at the end of her speech, Truman "gave her a fatherly smile and said, 'Thank you, dear.'" It added that "husky" Prince Philip wore his naval attire while "petite" Elizabeth, in a dark red suit, black hat, and black accessories "seemed to hit it off with the president immediately . . . they chatted together cheerfully as they walked together reviewing the troops."
Not everyone was impressed. The front page of The Washington Times-Herald carried a cartoon showing "Liz and Phil" flying on a Halloween broomstick with the caption "Trick or Treat?" (the royal couple arrived on October 31). It combined old colonial disdain for royalty with a dig at Britain's reliance on handouts of American candy.
The estimated 550,000 people who turned out to line the route of the presidential convoy bringing Elizabeth and Philip into the capital suggested that Americans were generally over feelings of contempt for the British monarchy-although the ranks of spectators on the streets were swelled by thousands of government workers allowed by Truman to leave their desks early to view the arrival. The American press gushed about the enthusiastic welcome and emphasized the youthfulness of the couple.
"From the moment of their dramatic arrival at National airport at 4 o'clock, their eyes sparkled with small girl-and-boy wonderment at the welcome, American style. They were to stay here forty-five hours," the Associated Press reported.
Elizabeth and Philip stayed at Blair House, a residence for state guests dating back to 1824 just across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, where the Trumans were also living during extensive renovations of the presidential mansion. During the trip, Truman took the couple up to the top floor to meet his elderly mother-in-law, Margaret Wallace, who was practically deaf and bedridden.
"Mother! I've bought Princess Elizabeth to see you!" he shouted. Confused and having heard that Churchill was back in office, she responded: "I'm so glad your father's been reelected."
After a change of costume for the princess into a green-gold cocktail dress and gray fur cape, the royal couple attended a reception with the US press where there was not one bow or curtsy but, as throughout Canada, they were showered with gifts for their two infant children, including an "Indian bonnet with eagle feathers" for Prince Charles (aged almost three) and an "Indian doll" for Princess Anne (aged one). The Des Moines Register found Elizabeth up close appeared "nervous and fatigued" after two dozen days on tour through Canada, while Philip, on the other hand, "was booming with vigor and wisecracks as befits a royal salesman for the beleaguered British empire. . . . Philip, to tell the truth, almost stole the show from his wife during the couple's first hours in Washington. Thousands of women along the line of the motorcade shrieked, 'There he is' as the big blond boy with the big smile waved to the crowds."
Elizabeth had the last laugh on the press corps. Once she was back in Canada, the princess used her talent for mimicry to mock US news reporters while she did some filming of her own-a hobby of the couple's. As she pointed a camera at her husband, she cried out in a nasal American voice, "Hey! You there! Hey, Dook! Look this way a sec! Dat's it! Thanks a lot!"
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Elizabeth and Philip departed from a capital “completely captivated by their youthful charm and grace,” according to the United Press news agency. This was a coup for the British and showed just what a royal visitation could do to encourage warm feelings between the nations above the fray of day-to-day politics, especially as the imbalance in their global strength was becoming clear.
A few days later, on November 5, the US press observed Truman showing a telegram to Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was then supreme commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Eisenhower could be heard asking Truman how he liked the visit by Princess Elizabeth, and the president replied: "She was wonderful." He then handed the general a telegram, saying, "Here's something that will tickle you." This was probably the message sent by the King on November 4, now held in the Truman Presidential Library, which read: "The Queen and I would like you to know how touched we are to hear of the friendly welcome given to our daughter and son-in-law in Washington. Our thoughts go back to our own visit in 1939, of which we have such happy memories. We are so grateful to you Mr. President for your kindness and hospitality to our children. George R."
However, another British message had arrived at the same time. Churchill had seen the political opportunity created by the visit immediately. State Department records show that on November 5, Churchill had Sir Oliver Franks, the British ambassador in Washington, deliver a written request inviting himself over for a "renewal of our former comradeship" in the US capital, as "there are many things I need to talk over with you" and "also as Minister of Defence I should like sometime to meet your Military Chiefs. . . . Please let me know what would be convenient and agreeable to you." Before she had become the monarch, a pattern was set by Elizabeth's first meeting with a US president that not only could such encounters renew Anglo-US relations, but they could also be used to advance hard-nosed national goals-even in the era when kings and queens had been relieved of all real political power. Truman was in no position to refuse Churchill, and the talks in early January reset the basis for postwar military cooperation between the two nations, even if the seventy-seven-year-old prime minister did not get everything he wanted.
After almost five weeks of touring, the nervous princess who had flown across the Atlantic departed back to Britain by ship (with ninety-seven pieces of luggage) from Portugal Cove in Newfoundland "a laughing, relaxed figure," according to the Canadian author Pierre Berton. She left a lasting impression in the United States: in the annual Associated Press poll of female editors in December, Elizabeth was named runner-up as "Woman of the Year" behind the intrepid war reporter Marguerite Higgins. That Christmas, Truman sent George VI a photograph of himself and the young royals, leading the King to send a thank-you note written on December 22, 1951, expressing his "glad" feelings that the president would soon be meeting Churchill.
