Worst Relationships between Heads of Friendly or Allied Countries

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Talking of Angela Merkel, I gather her relations with Mr Silvio Berlusconi weren't too great.

[Hash]

Hell, I think even Sarko and Berlusconi didn't get along too well at the end, even if both men have similar personalities.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Hell, I think even Sarko and Berlusconi didn't get along too well at the end, even if both men have similar personalities.

Yeah, I think Libya played a huge role in that. Berlusconi was best buds with Gaddafi, and really didn't appreciate being almost forcibly embarked into the operation to take him down.

[Hatman 🍁]

I take it there were a lot of Bunga Bunga parties in Tripoli?

[Middle-aged Europe]

Talking of Angela Merkel, I gather her relations with Mr Silvio Berlusconi weren't too great.

Is it even possible for a female head of government to have a good relationship with Silvio Berlusconi for that matter?

I mean, the man is a pig. Imagine Hillary would become president and meets Berlusonci. The first he'd probably say is: "Madam President, may I grasp your breasts?"

[© tweed]

Seems like Trudeau and his ego couldn't get along with anyone...

I think he was quite friendly to Fidel Castro, to the point he came to his funeral.

Yep:

to make it better (or worse), they're supposedly singing The Internationale in that photo.

[© tweed]

Though what's hard not to notice here is that like nine times out of ten the issue is ninety per cent personal, as it clearly is between Obama and Bibi, even if there may then be policy/strategy/whatever consequences.

came across this two-minute video today, which explains well why pols like Obama dislike Bibi and would prefer to work w/ a Labor Gov't (hint: you're right, it doesn't have much to do with policy at all, but with how policy is conducted)

[freefair]

It would be a stretch to call it one of the worst but it is no secret that the relationship between Kohl and Thatcher wasn't brilliant, to put it mildly.

Given the broad similarities in Economics, that is indeed strange.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Angela Merkel and Alexis Tsipras.

No, they actually seem to have a pretty good relationship, to the surprise of almost everyone.

Andreas Papandreoy OTOH had a notoriously bad relationship with both Thatcher and Reagan.

[checkers]

I'm not sure if Australia and India can really be considered allies in this period but I remember reading an argument that the reason that they didn't develop a closer relationship was due to the terrible personal relationship between Menzies and Nehru. The article argued that it was prejudice on Menzies part - he resented having the new post-colonial leaders enter what had once been the "white man's club" of the Commonwealth.

Whitlam didn't have a particularly good relationship with Nixon.

This is more political than personal but the Rainbow Warrior incident always seems kind of funny to me given that France and New Zealand are generally allies.

[Simfan34]

I haven't seen anyone mention Diefenbaker and Kennedy yet, so Diefenbaker and Kennedy.

But I had to choose between the two I'd go with Diefenbaker to be honest.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

It would be a stretch to call it one of the worst but it is no secret that the relationship between Kohl and Thatcher wasn't brilliant, to put it mildly.

Given the broad similarities in Economics, that is indeed strange.

Prepare to have your mind blown: some people don't base their personal connections soley on economic policy.

[Peter the Lefty]

Ludwig Erhard and Charles de Gaulle weren't very friendly.
I also understand that Kennedy and Ben Gurion had a frosty relationship.  


Is it true that Ike and Churchill didn't get along?

[Dr. Cynic]

Ludwig Erhard and Charles de Gaulle weren't very friendly.
I also understand that Kennedy and Ben Gurion had a frosty relationship. 


Is it true that Ike and Churchill didn't get along?

I'm not sure if Ike and Churchill didn't get along (wouldn't surprise me), but I know Eisenhower and Attlee had some heat.

Carter and Thatcher did not like each other at all. Not only because they were opposites in personality and politics, but because Carter was very close with Jim Callaghan (one of the oddest friendships between Prez and PM I can think of), which is a similar situation to what happened between John Major and Bill Clinton because Major and Bush were good friends.

Nobody liked Pierre Trudeau.

Further to that, wasn't there some heat between Dubya and Jean Chretien or Paul Martin?

[Indy Texas]

Ludwig Erhard and Charles de Gaulle weren't very friendly.
I also understand that Kennedy and Ben Gurion had a frosty relationship. 


Is it true that Ike and Churchill didn't get along?

I'm not sure if Ike and Churchill didn't get along (wouldn't surprise me), but I know Eisenhower and Attlee had some heat.

Carter and Thatcher did not like each other at all. Not only because they were opposites in personality and politics, but because Carter was very close with Jim Callaghan (one of the oddest friendships between Prez and PM I can think of), which is a similar situation to what happened between John Major and Bill Clinton because Major and Bush were good friends.

Nobody liked Pierre Trudeau.

Further to that, wasn't there some heat between Dubya and Jean Chretien or Paul Martin?

Personality, yes, but Carter was as much of a privatizer and a deregulator as Thatcher (it's just that as POTUS, there wasn't nearly as much to privatize or deregulate). Carter would be a malicious capitalist pig by the standards of the 1970s Labour Party.

[Famous Mortimer]

Carter was a reactionary Dixiecrat by the standard of a lot of 70s Democrats in the US even.

It's only the combination of old age and retrospect that makes him a solid liberal.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's funny is as closely associated as they are, even Reagan and Thatcher were often pretty cold with each other.

Thatcher opposed the invasion of Grenada and was pretty upset about it, and also that Reagan didn't offer any real support in the Falklands War. They may have been friends most of the time but from what I've read those resulted in some serious rough spots.

[Hnv1]

George H.W. Bush and Yitzhak Shamir (U.S. - Israel)
Margaret Thatcher and Menachem Begin (U.K. -Israel)
Margaret Thatcher and Yitzhak Shamir (U.K. - Israel)

Are some other ones. H.W.'s ties to Arab Oil was always going to make him an awkward ally to a right-wing government in Israel.

Same goes for Thatcher's relations with two founding members of anti-British Jewish Militias (Irgun and Lehi) during the Mandate period.

Not sure Bush and Shamir had such a bad personal relationship but rather the State dept. hated his guts. I doubt Thatcher really cared for Begin or Shamir (if she even met the later) but Shamir wasn't a very likable character as it is. Sharon dislike Chiraq and Begin dislike Mitterrand as he was best buds with Peres.

[Torie]

LBJ and De Gaulle did not get along well. I recall at some point LBJ said that the only way to solve the French issue was De Gaulle's death.

[Antonio the Sixth]

LBJ and De Gaulle did not get along well. I recall at some point LBJ said that the only way to solve the French issue was De Gaulle's death.

For that matter, Pearson and De Gaulle obviously didn't get along very well.

[ingemann]

It would be a stretch to call it one of the worst but it is no secret that the relationship between Kohl and Thatcher wasn't brilliant, to put it mildly.

Given the broad similarities in Economics, that is indeed strange.

Kohl is a horrible human being but mostly personally, Thatcher on the other hand was both incredible short sighted, completely oblivious in foreign policy and a general asshole. I would say that outside Anglophone countries, you would have a hard time finding anybody who had a nice relationship with her, when they first had to work with her. She was universal despised in EEC, and many of the problems UK have in EU today, are caused by her and her short sightedness. UK inability to create coalitions in EU, are caused by how often she sold her allies out, for a deal which only benefitted UK.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

She was universal despised in EEC, and many of the problems UK have in EU today, are caused by her and her short sightedness. UK inability to create coalitions in EU, are caused by how often she sold her allies out, for a deal which only benefitted UK.

Wow, so all that secular British assholery toward Europe would be her fault? Now that's a woman.

I would say that outside Anglophone countries, you would have a hard time finding anybody who had a nice relationship with her, when they first had to work with her.

Amusingly Mitterand didn't seem to have that of bad relationship with her, but Mitterrand was also 'special'.

He said about her: 'the mouth of Marylin, the eyes of Caligula'.

Also, who outside of Adenauer had a good relationship with De Gaulle?? (which is part of what made him fancy )

Ah, and was there also some other head of state that didn't find Sarkozy childich??

About him and Berlusconi, during the meeting in Paris to prepare strikes in Lybia, Sarkozy would have said about Berlusconi 'sometimes I wonder if that guy just has a brain...'.

Putin and Obama doesn't seem to be the warmest relationship we had lately too.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Does the Pope count?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Dubya/G. Schröder may count as well even though that largely happened due to Schröder's face-heel turn, going from strongly supporting military intervention in Afghanistan to strongly opposing military intervention in Iraq within 12-month-timespan or so.

I believe Schroeder already stated Germany won't participate in any intervention in Iraq, when the Bundestag debated sending troops to Afghanistan.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

A good early example would be Wilson and Lloyd George.

LBJ and De Gaulle did not get along well. I recall at some point LBJ said that the only way to solve the French issue was De Gaulle's death.

Interestingly, de Gaulle and LBJ avoided meeting each other like a fire. They only meet twice and briefly: at Kennedy's funeral and Adenauer's funeral.