“And this I would fight for: THE FREEDOM OF THE MIND To take any direction it wishes, undirected.” —John Steinbeck
Curtain
Churchill’s Prep for the “Iron Curtain” Speech 1946

Churchill’s Prep for the “Iron Curtain” Speech 1946

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Q: Where did Churchill write the Iron Curtain address?

When we first moved to the Unit­ed States we bought a home in New Canaan, Con­necti­cut that had once been owned by Bernard Baruch and used has his get-away. We were told that, as he and Churchill were friends, Churchill had been invit­ed by Baruch to stay there and it was there he wrote his Iron Cur­tain speech. We were nev­er sure whether this was true or whether it was some­thing a local real estate agent had dreamed up. There was anoth­er house down the road where George Wash­ing­ton was said to have slept on his way through!…

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Kiss
Origins: “I’ll kiss him on all four cheeks”

Origins: “I’ll kiss him on all four cheeks”

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Q: Churchill’s Kiss: A Cheeky Affair

I found myself using an alleged Churchill wit­ti­cism I have long known, but could not find in your book, Churchill’s Wit: The Defin­i­tive Col­lec­tion (2009). As I have it, Churchill was prepar­ing to meet Mar­shal Stal­in, and a diplo­mat­ic advi­sor said, “He will prob­a­bly expect to kiss you on both cheeks.” “Oh, that’s all right,” said Churchill, “as long as he doesn’t want to be kissed on all four.” Can you ver­i­fy this one?

My own main area of schol­ar­ly research is Samuel John­son, anoth­er sub­ject often mis­at­trib­uted. Good quote col­lec­tions more than just the quo­ta­tion and its source.…

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Texas
Churchill and Texas: The Complete History

Churchill and Texas: The Complete History

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Washington, after Pearl Harbor. Texas Reporter: "Mr. Minister [sic], can you tell us when you think we may lick these boys?" [Pause while someone explained to Churchill the meaning of the American slang, “lick.”] WSC: "If we manage it well, it will take only half as long as if we manage it badly." Texas reporter: "In one of your speeches you mentioned three or four of the [war’s] great climacterics. Would you now agree that our entry into the war is one of these, sir?" WSC: I think I may almost say [affecting a Texas drawl] Ah sho’ do!"

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Weber
Don Weber, RIP: Storming Pikes Peak, 42 Years On

Don Weber, RIP: Storming Pikes Peak, 42 Years On

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Arrivederci, Don

Don Weber of San Anto­nio, a ster­ling gen­tle­man of the old school, died Decem­ber 10th at the age of 90. Those who miss him may like to leave a few words on his per­ma­nent lega­cy page. There you will also find details of his extra­or­di­nary life.

In Don Weber’s mem­o­ry, we thought it would be a nice thing to reprint my arti­cle on storm­ing Pikes Peak in his 1914 Packard Six Mod­el 1448 on the 1976 Glid­den Tour. It first appeared in my sixth issue as edi­tor of The Packard Cor­morant, Spring 1977.…

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Bengal
Bengal Famine: The Hottest of Churchill Debates

Bengal Famine: The Hottest of Churchill Debates

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Bengal 1943-44

Most pop­u­lar by far: On both the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project web­site and this one, more read­er com­ment is engen­dered over Churchill’s role in the 1943 Ben­gal Famine than any oth­er sub­ject. A lot of it, pro and con, is by Indi­ans them­selves. This is under­stand­able. The food short­age that rav­aged Ben­gal in 1943-44 was the great­est human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis in India’s his­to­ry. Up to three mil­lion peo­ple died—5% of the province’s pop­u­la­tion. Pro­por­tion­al­ly, think 16 mil­lion Americans.

The book that start­ed the con­tro­ver­sy, Churchill’s Secret War, is now eight years old.…

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Athens
Athens 1944: Not Churchill’s Finest Hour? Hmm….

Athens 1944: Not Churchill’s Finest Hour? Hmm….

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Question:

A r ead­er writes: “Rather late in the day, I have been read­ing The Spec­ta­tor (UK) Christ­mas Spe­cial dat­ed 15/21/29 Decem­ber 2018. Page 28 refers to one Ron­nie Boyd, who had been a teenage Ordi­nary Sea­man aboard HMS Ajax in Decem­ber 1944, when Win­ston Churchill arrived in Athens to try to end the ongo­ing civ­il war.

 “British forces ‘helped put down, with con­sid­er­able force of arms, a per­ceived partisan/communist uprising—the so-called Bat­tle of Athens, or the Dekemvri­ana in Greece,’ the arti­cle states. There fol­lows the extra­or­di­nary state­ment ‘Not Win­ston Churchill’s Finest Hour, it has to be said.’…

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Walk
When Presidents and Prime Ministers Would Walk Among Us

When Presidents and Prime Ministers Would Walk Among Us

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There was a time, in a long-ago and inno­cent age, when nation­al lead­ers would walk about unac­com­pa­nied by secu­ri­ty. Some­times, they would even walk alone.

Four such episodes came to mind last week which exem­pli­fy this van­ished era. Ques­tions arrived from col­leagues about Churchill: his encoun­ters with Cana­di­an sol­diers and his North Car­oli­na con­nec­tions. Then The New York Times pub­lished a ret­ro­spec­tive on Woodrow Wil­son, dur­ing the 1918 Paris Peace Con­fer­ence. This was remind­ful of a fourth episode, involv­ing Har­ry Tru­man. The sad­ness is that none of these could have hap­pened in, the last fifty years. Maybe longer.

Walk in Paris: Woodrow Wilson, 1918

The Munic­i­pal Coun­cil of Paris gave Pres­i­dent Wil­son the keys to the City, but they neglect­ed to present him with what is far more essen­tial, a good map book, with which to find his way about the city’s intri­cate streets.…

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ideas
Churchill had how many ideas a day? How many were good?

Churchill had how many ideas a day? How many were good?

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Q: “Who made the crack that Churchill had a hun­dred ideas a day but only four of them were good?” —Bruce Sax­ton, Tren­ton, N.J.

A: There are sev­er­al can­di­dates and vari­a­tions. Tak­ing them as a group, Churchill had from six to 100 ideas dai­ly, of which between one and six were good. In order of the most like­ly. But it could be one of those all-pur­pose cracks applied to many people.

Roosevelt: fifty to 100 ideas, three or four good.

Pres­i­dent Roo­sevelt is the most like­ly to have said this, since he’s quot­ed more than any­one else.…

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chicken
Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 3)

Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 3)

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Per­spec­tive of His­to­ry: Address to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ottawa, Ontario, Cana­da, on Sir Winston’s 144th birth­day, 30 Novem­ber 2018 (Part 3). We were kind­ly host­ed at Earn­scliffe by the British High Com­mis­sion­er, Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque.

Perspective, 144 Years On

Con­clud­ed from Part 2…. “The great move­ments that under­lie history—the devel­op­ment of sci­ence, indus­try, cul­ture, social and polit­i­cal structures—are pow­er­ful, almost deter­mi­nant,” wrote Charles Krautham­mer.

Yet every once in a while, a sin­gle per­son aris­es with­out whom every­thing would be dif­fer­ent. In recent times, only Churchill car­ries that absolute­ly required cri­te­ri­on: indis­pens­abil­i­ty… Take away Churchill in 1940 [and] Hitler would have achieved what no oth­er tyrant, not even Napoleon, had ever achieved: mas­tery of Europe.…

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History
Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 2)

Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 2)

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His­to­ry and mem­o­ry: Address to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ottawa, Ontario, Cana­da, on Sir Winston’s 144th birth­day, 30 Novem­ber 2018 (Part 2). We were kind­ly host­ed at Earn­scliffe by the British High Com­mis­sion­er, Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque.

Churchill and the Perspective of History 144 Years On

Con­tin­ued from Part 1…. Do you want the good news or the bad news on Churchill today? The bad news is the high lev­el of igno­rance, as mea­sured by that elec­tron­ic Hyde Park Speaker’s Cor­ner, the Internet.

Churchill’s name elic­its 100 mil­lion Google hits, a col­league says, “Some are ques­tions, many of which sim­ply require the answer ‘No’—such as: ‘Was Churchill anti-Semit­ic?…

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Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

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