ABSTRACT
The Heath government was in office from June 1970 to February 1974 during the main turning point in postwar British history. The government is fascinating also because it has become such a battleground of rival views and interpretations. The historical assessment of Heath's government clouded by a number of factors. The government's decisive and long-lasting initiative was taking Britain into the European Economic Community (EEC). In foreign policy, the government placed the European relationship above both that with the Commonwealth and the 'special relationship' with the United States, although Heath enjoyed cordial personal relations with Richard Nixon. The thatcherite or new right critics see Heath and the Cabinet as having fallen under the spell of civil servants, particularly at the Cabinet Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a 'trap' Mrs Thatcher was careful to avoid after 1979. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was partly dismantled in 1973 and the remainder was broken in three in March 1974.
