ABSTRACT

James Callaghan was lucky to have a formidable experience to draw upon when he became Foreign Secretary in March of 1974 following Labour’s surprise success in the general election that had been prematurely called by Edward Heath. In March of 1974 Callaghan had held the position of shadow Foreign Secretary for two years following the reshuffle that had been caused by Roy Jenkins’s resignation in 1972 over the Labour Party’s stance on the EEC. During this time Callaghan travelled extensively to the USA, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the Far East and the Middle East, renewing old acquaintances and making many new ones.1 Until then Callaghan had been shadow Home Secretary but Wilson’s decision to replace Jenkins with Healey as shadow Chancellor meant that probably only Callaghan could be given the vacant foreign-policy portfolio. Callaghan was therefore reasonably well informed about the most important foreign-policy issues of the day when he took office.