April 2021 - Richard M. Langworth

German Resistance: “Driven by the Restlessness of their Conscience”

30 April 2021

Questions on the Weiss Rose resistance

A German parliamentary journal quotes Churchill on the German resistance to Hitler: “These men and women fought without help from within or without, driven only by the restlessness of their conscience. As long as they lived they were invisible and unrecognizable to us. In their death, the resistance became visible. Their deeds and sacrifices are the foundation of the reconstruction.” (Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, Germans Against Hitler , 3rd ed., Berto-Verlag, Bonn, 1960; Barry Sullivan, Thresholds of Peace, 1979). I cannot find the original document and somewhat doubt its authenticity. …

Read More Read More

“The Packard”: Ne Plus Ultra of Automotive House Organs (2)

25 April 2021

Today its old yellowed pages are an infinitesimal microcosm of what was a great company at the height of success, more valuable than the sterile if luxurious sales brochures. The last page of the last issue showed a majestic Deluxe Eight, pictured front-on, a testimonial to Packard integrity. Beneath it was a two-line statement that summarized the work of those who had created the finest automotive house organ in history: “This magazine reaches you as another evidence of our interest in your Packard ownership.’’

Read More Read More

Albrecht Forster and Churchill’s Danzig Moment, 1939

20 April 2021

An article argues that WSC supported appeasement and approved of Fascism. While this is a well-written critique, it tends to magnify specifics to justify generalities. It does not establish Churchill’s attachment to Fascism and Appeasement (although he approved of some forms of the latter). It does instruct us on the kinds of fascists Churchill dealt with in the 1920s and 1930s.

Read More Read More

Churchill’s Consistency: The Fulton Warning Continues

15 April 2021

Excerpted from “Churchill’s Steady Adherence to His 1946 ‘Iron Curtain’ Speech in Fulton,” written for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. For the Hillsdale post with endnotes and more images, please click here. (Part of the text is taken from “Iron Curtain 75 Years On,” while adding relevant timelines.)

Fulton then and now

Initially condemned as a warmonger for telling the truth about Soviet intentions in his 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech, Churchill was soon acknowledged as a prophet—sometimes by the same individuals and media who excoriated him. Churchill himself never backed off.…

Read More Read More

Old Victory’s Pride (Extended Review): “Churchill & Son” by Josh Ireland

10 April 2021

"Randolph, Hope and Glory": Writing his father's biography was his chance at redemption, “to create a lasting record of his love and devotion to the man he had loved more than any other person he had ever known. In the process of telling the story of his father’s life, he belatedly gave meaning to his own.”

Read More Read More

“Jaw to Jaw” Versus “Jaw-Jaw”: Supermac Still Owns the Latter

6 April 2021

“Jaw-Jaw” be-jaws the dialogue (from 2008):

On 27 June 1954, Churchill was quoted as saying “jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.” (William H. Lawrence, “Churchill urges Patience in Coping with Red Dangers,” The New York Times, page 1; and Walter Trohan, “‘Vigilance and Time’ Asked by Churchill,” Chicago Daily Tribune, page 1. Did Churchill say this? —M.D.

No. From my Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill, page 37:

“Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war.” —1954 Commonly misquoted as ‘Jaw-jaw is better than war-war,’ an expression coined four years later by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, on a visit to Australia.…

Read More Read More