No Cards, No Flowers: Churchill on the Death of Stalin
Stalin redux
A correspondent to the Financial Times slipped a red herring into our store of Winston Churchill quotations, and thanks to the newspaper for publishing my correction.
In a letter to the FT, Mary Ellen Synon defended Irish Taoiseach Eamon de Valera expression of condolences at the German Embassy upon the death of Adolf Hitler. Ms. Synon suggested that this was just an ordinary diplomatic gesture—a formality. After all, didn’t Churchill send condolences to Moscow following the death of Stalin? No.
Churchill was outraged by de Valera’s action, but was not guilty of the same lack of propriety (or hypocrisy).…
