When a secret decision was made by the British government in 1960, under pressure from US President Eisenhower, to allow an American Polaris base in Scotland, it was a political one made at the height of Cold War fear. Barely eight months later, in March 1961, a crowd of people gathered along the shoreline in the little town of Dunoon to watch the future arrive, in the form of the USS Proteus. Local people were unsure what to expect. But this rather nondescript grey naval vessel did carry the future for many. The US Navy base on the Holy Loch was to dominate Dunoon and the Cowal peninsula for the next thirty years. Views of its presence varied. The fears of many locals of the consequences of a nuclear submarine facility on their doorstep were amplified by huge demonstrations against nuclear weapons in the early 1960s. Yet people seemed to welcome the American service personnel and their families and the appeal of American life and glitz was great for many younger residents of a small Scottish town.
Andrene Messersmith, herself a child at the time of the US arrival, has compiled a collection of impressions and memoir from both sides of the Atlantic of what this major change meant to Dunoon. In the present age of different power balances in the world, The American Years is a social history with resonance for today.
“The arrival of the Americans in the Holy Loch was a huge happening in Scottish and even international terms, but in its human impact it was most marked on those in the Cowal locality. I offer my own personal memoir – and how it all affected my life and career – but in these pages others tell their colourful tales. This is a significant part of Scotland’s rich social history – and a great read as well.” George Robertson, Secretary General NATO
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