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Churchill and the Baltic States: From WW2 to Liberation

25 January 2018

EXCERPT ONLY: For the complete text of “Churchill and the Baltic” with endnotes, please go to this page on the Hillsdale College Churchill Project.

“No doubt where the right lay”: 1940-95

Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky was a “Bollinger Bolshevik” who mixed support for Communism with a love of Western luxury. Friendly to Churchill, he knew the Englishman hoped to separate Hitler and Stalin, even after World War II had started.

But Maisky tended to see what he wished to see. In December he recorded: “The British Government announces its readiness to recognize ‘de facto’ the changes in the Baltics so as to settle ‘de jure’ the whole issue later, probably after the war.” There…

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Clement Attlee’s Noble Tribute to Winston Churchill

21 January 2018

My colleague Richard Cohen commends a eulogy to Churchill by the great Labour Party leader Clement Attlee. It occurred in the House of Lords on 25 January 1965, the day after Sir Winston died. It is notable for its fine words. Moreover, it shows how their relationship as colleagues eclipsed that of political opponents. At a time of greatly strained relations between the parties, on both sides of the pond, this is a thoughtful reminder that things could be different.

Attlee was the first prime minister of a socialist government with an outright majority (1945-51).…

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“Darkest Hour,” the movie: an interview with The Australian

28 December 2017

For The Australian …

Troy Bramston of The Australian newspaper had pertinent questions about the new movie Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill. With the thought that Troy’s queries might be of interest, I append the text of the interview.

The Australian : Of all the things Winston Churchill is purported to have said and done, the myths and misconceptions, which are the most prevalent and frustrating for scholars? None of these appear in the film, but there are three things that rankle: 1) The lies—that he was anxious to use poison gas; that he firebombed Dresden in revenge for Coventry; that he exacerbated the Bengal famine, etc.…

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Brendan Bracken: “Winston’s Faithful Chela”

12 December 2017

“Stanley Baldwin, showing an unexpected familiarity with Indian phrases, described Brendan Bracken as ‘Winston’s faithful chela,‘ wrote the biographer Charles Lysaght. “This is what gave Bracken his place in history, a minor but still an important one.”

The Hillsdale College Churchill Project has published two articles on Brendan Bracken, Churchill’s loyal ally and friend for four decades. The first begins with a memoir by the late Ron Robbins, a Canadian journalist who early on covered the House of Commons, where he met Bracken. The postscript is by me, followed by reviews of the two Bracken books by George Gale and A.J.P.…

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Mr. Stern, Mr. Trump, Churchill Quotes and Misquotes

28 November 2017

November 27th— Writing in the Daily Beast, Mr. Marlow Stern praises Kristin Scott Thomas (“Clementine Churchill” in the new movie Darkest Hour) and announces: “Donald Trump is No Winston Churchill.” (Past doubt, but who is?)

Mr. Stern himself offers only one Churchill quote and gets it right: “A free press is the unsleeping guardian of every other right that free men prize; it is the most dangerous foe of tyranny.” (Colliers, 28 December 1935.)

Bingo! That’s an obscure one. Forgive him for vastly exaggerating Churchill’s alcohol intake. (WSC’s “six whisky sodas” were described by his private secretary as “scotch-flavored mouthwash.”…

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Hitler essays — Churchill’s perceptive article about Hitler in The Strand Magazine, November 1935. (Ronald I. Cohen collection)

Nashville (5). The Myth that Churchill Admired Hitler

4 November 2017

Part 5 of Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality examines multiplying fables between the two World Wars. Churchill was an alcoholic, we are often assured. He flip-flopped over Bolshevism. All Jews were communists, he said. He despised Gandhi. A closet fascist, he supported Mussolini. But one tall tale perhaps eclipses all the others. It is the idea that Churchill admired Hitler. Remarks to the Churchill Society of Tennessee, Nashville, 14 October 2017. Continued from Part 4…

Judging Hitler

It is important to understand just how right Churchill was about Hitler. In May 1935 the Führer wrote a revealing letter to the British newspaper magnate Esmond Harmsworth, Lord Rothermere, one of his promoters.…

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Nashville (4). Churchill as Warmonger in World War I

28 October 2017

“Winston…has got on all his war-paint” (Asquith)

In 1914, the Great War arrives, and fables about Churchill multiply. A popular one, kept alive by pundits and historians, alike, is that Churchill led the warmonger party into World War I. Remarks to the Churchill Society of Tennessee, Nashville, 14 October 2017. Continued from Part 3...

Patrick J. Buchanan is an affable tory who wrote speeches for Nixon and ran quixotic campaigns for President of the U.S. three times in 1992-2000. (I voted for him once!) He’s an effective contrarian, and his debating skills are renowned.…

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lecture — What an honor: Nashville portraitist Shane Neal set to work. Thanks, Shane!

Nashville (1). Winston Churchill: Current Contentions and Things That Go Bump in the Night

18 October 2017

NASHVILLE, OCTOBER 14TH— The Churchill Society of Tennessee kindly invited me to talk about Winston Churchill: Myth and Reality and the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. Our hosts, John and Karen Mather and Dick and Linda Knight, could not have been more thoughtful, kinder and more generous to Barbara and me. If I performed anything for them or Mr. Churchill, that’s only a poor contribution in an attempt at requital. *** As a bonus, I was honored by a portrait by Shane Neal, a brilliant Nashville artist and a gent, as their way of saying thanks. In discussing Churchill’s art, Shane was joined by fellow artist Joseph Daily, who painted some forty portraits of the Churchill family and their friends in England. …

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John Peck, 1945: General Eisenhower asks if the war is over….

22 September 2017

Col. Gault (Military Assistant to General Eisenhower, 29 April 1945): “John Peck, is that you? The General told me to ask you if the war is over.”

Peck: “I beg your pardon?”

Gault: “Seriously, we’ve got a press message here which says quite clearly that it’s all over. If so, nobody has told the General and he thought you would be the most likely to know at your end.”

Peck: “Well, if it has ended, nobody has told the Prime Minister either.”

Gault: “Do you think we had better carry on?”

Peck: “Yes, I think so.”…

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Lt. Churchill: “A Subaltern’s Advice to Generals”

17 September 2017

With colleagues I discussed which of young Winston’s early war books was derisively called, “A Subaltern’s Advice to Generals.” This was a popular wisecrack after his early works had the temerity to propose British military strategy in India, Sudan and South Africa. Churchill was in his mid-twenties at the time—but not reticent to speak his mind. Nothing we didn’t know here….

Malakand Field Force?

Without consulting references, I thought the “advice” line involved The Story of the Malakand Field Force (Churchill’s first book, 1898). I was influenced by its last chapter, “The Riddle of the Frontier.” Plenty of advice there, though it is as much political as it is military.…

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