After the rearrangement in world affairs that took place in the second half of the 20th century, the British became very sensitive to the perception of being pushed around by America. Sometimes this perception was just oversensitivity. Other times, as with Eisenhower's ugly intervention on behalf of Egypt and overt threat on the British economy during the Suez crisis, it was extremely real.
Anti-war campaigners got more mileage out of opposing the US than they did on Soviet policy or the merits of the Iraq War. Which is why Obama's ugly threats to the UK over Brexit were a terrible idea.
The Obama administration has warned British officials that if the UK leaves Europe it will exclude itself from a US-EU trade and investment partnership potentially worth hundreds of billions of pounds a year, and that it was very unlikely that Washington would make a separate deal with Britain.
Then Obama added fuel to the fire.
U.S. President Barack Obama warned Britain on Friday that it would find itself "at the back of the queue" for a trade deal with the United States if it voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in June.
And the reaction was not particularly positive.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Conservative MP, said “perhaps Obama just doesn’t like Britain” in a letter to the Daily Mirror.
"I am looking forward to the visit of Barack Obama in April to help the campaign for Britain to remain in the European Union.
I can think of no better advocate for Brexit .
It is wonderfully arrogant and presumptuous of a foreign leader to think that he can lay down the law for the United Kingdom, as if we were a colony of the United States.
Democrats repeatedly blasted Bush for "ruining relations" with Europe, yet one can't imagine Bush overtly threatening the UK in public the way Obama did. And it may have backfired.
UKIP's Nigel Farage has suggested that, "I think we got an Obama Brexit bounce because people do not want foreign leaders telling them how to think and how to vote.”