American hostility to British posessions in the New World goes back at least to the Monroe Doctrine. When NATO was set up, the treaty was worded carefully so that an attack upon the Falklands (and certain other colonial territories) would not trigger the US’s obligation to defend Great Britain.
That should read "anywhere else in the world". Eisenhower's disastrous intervention in the 1956 Suez Canal operation ensured (1) Nasser's survival, (2) the French abandonment of its colonies to radical anti-West elements, (3) no British help in Vietnam and (4) the rise of radical anti-American regimes around the world, as European countries rushed to get the heck out of their overseas possessions. State Department leftists have repeatedly sold American interests down the river while claiming to stand up for them.