Month: October 2022

Winston Churchill on War, Part 3: Anthony Montague Browne

Winston Churchill on War, Part 3: Anthony Montague Browne

"I tried to rally him. I spoke of the extraordinary life he had enjoyed...all he had said and done, of how he was almost universally popular and admired. In Germany in 1956, as he drove through the streets he was cheered. It astonished him. After all, it was not very long after the end of the war....How, I concluded, could he be so downcast? I noted his reply verbatim: 'Yes, I worked very hard all my life, and I have achieved a great deal—in the end to achieve nothing.'"

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Winston Churchill on War, Part 2: Atomic Age

Winston Churchill on War, Part 2: Atomic Age

"Then it may well be that we shall by a process of sublime irony have reached a stage in this story where safety will be the sturdy child of terror, and survival the twin brother of annihilation.…The [atomic] deterrent does not cover the case of lunatics or dictators in the mood of Hitler when he found himself in his final dug-out. That is a blank…."

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Winston Churchill on War, Part 1: 1900-1932

Winston Churchill on War, Part 1: 1900-1932

Churchill's reputation as a warrior tends to obscure his efforts for peace. Of peace he sometimes despaired, especially toward the end of his life. Herewith are some of Churchill’s words on war and peace from "Churchill by Himself." Part 3 will consider why he regretted, in his final years, that despite all his efforts, peace still did not prevail in the world.

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What Winston Churchill Meant by “Christian Civilization”

What Winston Churchill Meant by “Christian Civilization”

When Churchill referred to Chris­t­ian civil­i­za­tion, he did not mean to exclude Jews or Bud­dhists or Mus­lims. Just as, to him, the word “man” meant human­ity, his allu­sions to Chris­tian­ity embod­ied prin­ci­ples he con­sid­ered uni­ver­sal. He meant the Ten Com­mand­ments (a “judg­men­tal” set of moral imper­a­tives now expunged from cer­tain pub­lic places). He meant the Ser­mon on the Mount and the Golden Rule. He meant char­ity, for­give­ness, courage.

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Shocking Facts: “Nuclear Armageddon” Then and Now

Shocking Facts: “Nuclear Armageddon” Then and Now

"Churchill's style of tossing ideas around with his companion, often to test their effect, mistakenly inclined Moran to give these half-formed thoughts and suggestions a status of hard fact." And not just Moran. Bridges and King were certainly taken aback sufficiently to record Churchill's contemplation of nuclear war.

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Churchill the Drunk. Or: Fasten Seatbelts on Bar Stools

Churchill the Drunk. Or: Fasten Seatbelts on Bar Stools

Churchill did have an astonishing capacity, and most historians grant him a decided preference for lubrication. But Lockhart is no more reliable than others. from Alan Brooke to Bessie Braddock, who attributed to alcohol a Churchill who worked and harangued 18 hours a day and was often exhausted…. Yet apparently not drunk enough to debate Empire Free Trade—or to spark Lockhart’s imagination.

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