2014 - Richard M. Langworth

Recognizing Cuba

18 December 2014

“I was, I think, the first in this House to suggest, in November 1949, recognition of the Chinese Communists….I thought that it would be a good thing to have diplomatic representation. But if you recognise anyone it does not necessarily mean that you like him. We all, for instance, recognise the Rt Hon Gentleman, the Member for Ebbw Vale.”* —Winston S. Churchill, 1 July 1952.

On President Obama’s December 17th announcement restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba, a colleague writes: “Finally we’ll have access to truly great healthcare.”

Funny. Actually top tier Cuban healthcare is mainly for party members. There is a tiered system.…

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Richard Deane Taylor 1925-2014

27 November 2014

Richard Deane Taylor achieved immortality when he painted one of the most evocative and accurate portraits of Winston Churchill for Collier’s in 1951, to mark Churchill’s return to office. Years later he gave me the privilege of using it on the first English edition of my book of quotations, Churchill By Himself. He leaves fond memories among his colleagues and former students.

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Nye — Churchill broadcasting on VE-Day, 8 May 1945. On national health he earlier told Lord Moran: “The doctors aren’t going to dictate to the country, they tried that with Lloyd George.” (Imperial War Museum, public domain)

Churchill’s Leadership, Denver 20-21 April 2015

20 November 2014

This year marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of Churchill becoming prime minister in 1940, and the fiftieth anniversary of his death in 1965. This Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar drew leading historians and thinkers to examine Churchill’s extraordinary statesmanship and the lessons that may be drawn from his example today.

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Boris Says the Strangest Things

17 November 2014

Boris Johnson, whose book, The Churchill Factor, is feted widely, speaks his mind with a smile. Like Mr. Obama, he’s a chap I’d like to share a pint with at the local.

But fame and likability don’t a Churchill scholar make. And in that department, Boris Johnson needs some help.

His remarks are quoted from a November 14th speech at the Yale Club in New York City.

Boris Fact-checks

1) Lend-Lease, Roosevelt’s World War II “loan” of $50 billion worth of war materiel to the Allies, “screwed” the British.

I queried Professor Warren Kimball of Rutgers University, editor of the Churchill-Roosevelt Correspondence and several books on World War II, who wrote:

The U.S.…

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El-Sisi: The Churchill Test; Another Damaskinos?

9 November 2014

Realpolitik: "At a conference in the Greek Foreign Office, lit only by hurricane lamps as bombs burst over the Piraeus, Churchill subjected the warring Greeks to a discourse the like of which they had never heard before. The two factions agreed to appoint Damaskinos as Regent; he called for reconciliation, ended the fighting, and left office in 1946 with Greece a constitutional monarchy."

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Official Biography — Hillsdale first trod “new ground” with document volume 17, Testing Times 1942, shown here with Martin Gilbert’s “wodges” from which its 1652 pages were distilled. (Hillsdale College Press)

Hillsdale College Senior Fellow

6 November 2014

I am pleased to post this press release, and honored to be associated with the distinguished Churchill scholars at Hillsdale. Without their work, the Churchill Official Biography would be out of print and unfinished. With them, you can buy every volume at a modest price, all 31 volumes. It's nice to be among friends.

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Washington Nationals: Wait Till Next Year

28 October 2014

After playing doormat to the National League East for ages; after blowing a sure Division Series in 2012, we all expected our Washington Nationals to put a stamp on the 90th anniversary of 1924—the last year Washington won the World Series. Why it didn't happen...

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Curt Zoller, A Churchill Bibliographer of Distinction

27 October 2014

R.I.P. Curt

Laguna Hills, Calif., October 6th— Curt Zoller, a Churchill scholar for a third of a century, passed away a week short of his 94th birthday. “Over the last two years his health had been rapidly declining,” writes his daughter Marsha, “but he tried so hard to ‘Never give in.'”

A serious book collector, Curt was a longtime columnist for Finest Hour, the Churchill quarterly I edited from 1982 to 2014. There he wrote “Churchilltrivia,” the Quiz column. In 2004 he published an invaluable reference, The Annotated Bibliography of Works About Sir Winston S. Churchill. In it, Curt logged thousands of books, articles and dissertations.…

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“Our Nige”: The New Happy Warrior

25 October 2014

N.B. A shorter version of this piece on Nigel Farage appeared in The Weekly Standard online

A few years ago Britain’s Nigel Farage was a political curiosity, head of a fringe party, gadfly member of the European Parliament, an ex-commodities broker who never went to college, dismissed as a nutter by ruling elites in London and Brussels. On 23 June 2016, he was widely credited with a key role in the referendum favoring Brexit— Britain’s exit from the European Community.

“Our Nige,” his supporters call him—personable, chatty, good-looking, beer swilling, cigarette and cigar smoking—wants Britain, not the European Union, to govern British affairs.…

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Boris: What Winston Would Do, Part 13,783

25 October 2014

Colorful politicians willing to say what they really think are rare prizes. But publishing a book on Churchill doesn't convey the right to judge what he would do today. The answer Lady Soames always gave when people said such things was: "How do you know?"

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