Year: 2009

Dardanelles Then, Afghanistan Now: Apples and Oranges

Dardanelles Then, Afghanistan Now: Apples and Oranges

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Writ­ing in the Los Ange­les Times, Pro­fes­sor Andrew J. Bace­vich con­sid­ered the war in Afghanistan against Churchill’s expe­ri­ence in World War I. Churchill, he says, looked for alter­na­tives to “send­ing our armies to chew barbed wire in Flan­ders.” Just so. And we should be look­ing for alter­na­tives to chew­ing dust in Afghanistan.

Bace­vich describes Churchill’s alter­na­tive as “an amphibi­ous assault against the Dar­d­anelles.” (That is a phys­i­cal impos­si­bil­i­ty.) Churchill cham­pi­oned a naval attack on the Dar­d­anelles, fol­lowed by an amphibi­ous assault on the Gal­lipoli Penin­su­la). Bace­vich adds that Churchill wished to “sup­port the infantry with tanks.”…

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Churchill Books for Young Readers

Churchill Books for Young Readers

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Please send me some book rec­om­men­da­tions on Churchill’s life for young read­ers. By young, I mean a boy of sev­en years old. My nephew asked me about the book I was read­ing (Churchill: The Unex­pect­ed Hero by Paul Addi­son), and after I told him a lit­tle bit about it, he want­ed to know more. I’d appre­ci­ate any rec­om­men­da­tions. —R.M., Mass.

Paul Addison’s Unex­pect­ed Hero is prob­a­bly the best “brief life” in print. If your nephew is into that at sev­en,  he has great promise, and you should buy him a mem­ber­ship in The Churchill Cen­tre. The stu­dent rate is $25, which rep­re­sents a 50% discount.…

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“Dogfight under a carpet…”

“Dogfight under a carpet…”

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Churchill alleged­ly com­pared Russ­ian pol­i­tics to a “dog­fight under a car­pet.” It was men­tioned in The Econ­o­mist of 17 Novem­ber 2005: “Like watch­ing dogs fight­ing under a car­pet, was how Churchill described Russ­ian pol­i­tics. On Novem­ber 14th the car­pet stirred, when Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin announced that Dmit­ry Medvedev, head of the pres­i­den­tial admin­is­tra­tion since 2003, was to become first deputy prime min­is­ter.” It seems to be fair­ly well known. Can you give me the exact quote and a cita­tion? —P.C.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, because it’s an amus­ing line that sounds a bit like him, I can­not. We searched Churchill Online, includ­ing Churchill’s own fif­teen mil­lion words—all his books, arti­cles, speech­es and pub­lished papers.…

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Did Churchill Praise Hitler?

Did Churchill Praise Hitler?

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The film “Judg­ment at Nurem­berg” sug­gests that Churchill offered praise to Hitler right after the Munich Pact, which would seem an odd time for Churchill to be singing the praise of the Führer. What’s the sto­ry? —K.C., Washington

In a speech to the Reich­stag in ear­ly Novem­ber 1938, Hitler had attacked Churchill and oth­ers who had object­ed to the Munich Pact by name and describ­ing them as “war­mon­gers.” Reply­ing in the House of Com­mons on 6 Novem­ber, Churchill said:

I am sur­prised that the head of a great State should set him­self to attack British mem­bers of Par­lia­ment who hold no offi­cial posi­tion and who are not even the lead­ers of par­ties.…

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Baseball: Pitch Counts & Match-ups

Baseball: Pitch Counts & Match-ups

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I watched last night’s Wash­ing­ton Nation­als-Boston Red Sox game with a Red Sox fan named Hank, whose reac­tions may be of inter­est to base­ball fans in gen­er­al, as a sug­ges­tion of how the game is man­aged by some folks these days.

Top sec­ond, Nats 1, Sox 0

Hank: “Your team looks pret­ty good. I think they’ll win.”

RL: “Just wait.”

Bot­tom fourth, Nats 2, Sox 2

Hank: “Bases loaded, one out. Lan­nan the pitcher’s up next. You need runs now. Her­nan­dez is fast and the infield’s back—why not squeeze?”

RL: “Our man­agern­ev­er squeezes. Doesn’t teach bunting.”

Hank: “Hit and run then?”…

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Taylor
A perfect likeness for the first edition. See cover, below. (Courtesy Jonathan Taylor)
Churchill Artist Richard Deane Taylor

Churchill Artist Richard Deane Taylor

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The publishers did make good efforts to lighten WSC's eyes (which in life were very light blue). Unfortunately, they cropped the top of WSC’s head, incurring the ire of Lady Soames and this writer, and somewhat spoiling the effect. They promised to fix this in the second edition, and they did so, happily for all, not the least Richard Deane Taylor himself.

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Churchill and the Holocaust

Churchill and the Holocaust

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In the Jan­u­ary 2009 issue of Com­men­tary, Hil­lel Halkin penned an inter­est­ing piece, “The Jew­ish State & Its Arabs,” which result­ed in a flur­ry of read­er com­ment on the Com­men­tary web­site.

One read­er had the impres­sion that Churchill “over­re­act­ed” to the 1944 assas­si­na­tion of Lord Moyne by mem­bers of the Jew­ish Lehi (Stern Gang). Anoth­er wrote some­thing I just could not let pass with­out rejoinder:

…had Churchill giv­en an order to bomb Auschwitz, rather than sim­ply rec­om­mend that it be bombed, it would have been bombed. He did not do so, pre­sum­ably, because he was loath to quar­rel with his gen­er­al staff and did not wish to stand accused of risk­ing British pilots and air crews in order to save Jew­ish lives that had no mil­i­tary value.…

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Quotations Winston Churchill Never Said: A Few Additions

Quotations Winston Churchill Never Said: A Few Additions

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A web­site named “IL Con­ser­v­a­tive” post­ed in June 2009 eight Churchill “quo­ta­tions,” six of which he nev­er said. These quo­ta­tions are all over the Inter­net, none of them attrib­uted to WSC. They just seem to mul­ti­ply and get passed on, like the com­mon cold. They are all exam­ples of “Churchillian Drift” (or “Yogi Berra Drift,” if you are a base­ball fan): neat lit­tle say­ings attached to some­body famous to make them sound more interesting.

The pur­pose of my “Red Her­rings” appen­dix of eighty incor­rect quo­ta­tions in Churchill by Him­self is to coun­ter­act the raft of mis­in­for­ma­tion con­veyed, large­ly through the web, but it’s like the Dutch boy stick­ing his fin­ger in the dyke.…

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Wikipedia
“With the grenadiers”: Churchill (seated, center) and fellow officers of the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers, Ploegsteert, Belgium, 1916. At WSC’s right is his longtime colleague in war and peace, Archibald Sinclair. (Creative Commons, Samleighton87)
A New Edition of “Thoughts and Adventures”

A New Edition of “Thoughts and Adventures”

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An erudite new foreword and extensive footnotes instruct the modern reader by describing events, people and places no longer familiar. There is also a thick set of notes, on the origin of each essay, its titular and textual variations. In many cases we learn how it came to be written.Truly this is as eminent an edition of Thoughts and Adventures as we could hope to have—a tribute to the editor and Mr. Courtenay, as to the author. It serves inform future generations of Churchill’s political instinct, judgment, foresight and magnanimity.

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Gleeson
Brendan Gleeson as WSC. (Photo by Susan Allnutt for HBO.)
End of Glory: “Into the Storm” with Brendan Gleeson and Janet McTeer (2009)

End of Glory: “Into the Storm” with Brendan Gleeson and Janet McTeer (2009)

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Into the Storm, a tele­vi­sion dra­ma broad­cast by the BBC and HBO. Pro­duced by Rid­ley Scott, direct­ed by Thad­deus O’Sullivan. Bren­dan Glee­son as Win­ston Churchill and Janet McTeer as Clemen­tine Churchill. Screen­play by Hugh Whitemore.

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Cap­tain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than fac­ing fear­ful odds,
For the ash­es of his fathers,
And the tem­ples of his gods…”
—“Hor­atius,” stan­za XXVII in Lays of Ancient Rome, by Thomas Bab­bing­ton Macaulay. Recit­ed at the begin­ning and at the end of “Into the Storm.”…

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Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

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The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

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