Harold Macmillan

"Harold Macmillan was a British Conservative politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. He was born into a wealthy publishing family and educated at Eton and Oxford. He fought in the First World War and was wounded several times. He entered politics in 1924 as a Member of Parliament for Stockton-on-Tees. He held various ministerial positions under Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden, including Minister of Housing, Minister of Defence, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He became Prime Minister in 1957 after Eden's resignation over the Suez Crisis. He led the Conservatives to a landslide victory in the 1959 general election with the slogan "You've never had it so good", based on his record of economic prosperity and low unemployment. He also pursued a policy of decolonization, granting independence to many former British colonies in Africa and Asia. He sought to integrate Britain into the European Community, but his application was vetoed by French President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. He faced several domestic and international challenges in his later years, such as the Profumo Affair, a sex scandal that damaged his government's reputation; the Cuban Missile Crisis, a nuclear confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union; and the emergence of the Labour Party under Harold Wilson as a formidable opposition. He resigned in October 1963 due to ill health and was succeeded by Alec Douglas-Home. He retired from Parliament in 1964 and was elevated to the House of Lords as the Earl of Stockton in 1984. He died in 1986 at his home in East Sussex at the age of 92. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential and successful British prime ministers of the 20th century."