20. The James Bond novels and short stories were pro-British at the expense of America
Throughout the James Bond series, in the works written by the character’s creator, the Anglo-American alliance during the Cold War was stressed. The stress was always on the superior contribution of the British. American CIA agent Felix Leiter was presented as always following Bond’s lead, Bond’s orders, and Bond’s direction. In three of the novels Bond is presented with a crisis which is actually an American one, and he resolves it for them, with British Intelligence saving the United States from its less competent agencies. When Dr. No threatens the United States, a British warship and British troops are used to thwart him.
Fleming wrote the Bond series of books and short stories as the British Empire was in sharp decline. So was the British military, the fleet was no longer the most powerful in the world, nor the largest. Britain was increasingly dependent on the United States for its defense, as was most of western Europe. Fleming’s resentment of the United States and most things American became increasingly evident as the series went on, reflected in Bond’s actions, thoughts, and conversations. Fleming wrote of British world dominance as a symbol of normal times, and though he was aware of Britain’s decline, it was presented in his novels as a bad thing, longing for the situation to be reversed, expressed through James Bond.