Tag: Franklin Roosevelt

Churchill Documents: The Italian Navy

Churchill Documents: The Italian Navy

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Excerpt­ed from “The Ital­ian Navy in The Churchill Doc­u­ments, Vol­ume 19,” by Andrew Roberts. To read the full arti­cle, click here.

Fate­ful Ques­tions: Sep­tem­ber 1943 to April 1944, lat­est vol­ume in The Churchill Doc­u­ments, is avail­able from Hills­dale Col­lege Book­store. To order click here.

Andrew Roberts writes:

After the sur­ren­der of Italy to the Allies in Sep­tem­ber 1943, the Ital­ian Fleet was appor­tioned between the Allied pow­ers and absorbed into their navies. Although the Axis had by then been cleared out of the Mediter­ranean, the ships played a sig­nif­i­cant part in the rest of the war.…

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Churchill and the Avoidable War: Outline

Churchill and the Avoidable War: Outline

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A read­er who enjoys my book, Churchill and the Avoid­able War, sug­gests that it would appeal more broad­ly if peo­ple knew what was in it (like the Afford­able Care Act). Ever anx­ious to reap the huge mon­e­tary rewards of a Kin­dle Sin­gle, I offer this brief out­line. If this con­vinces you to invest in my lit­tle work of his­to­ry (paper­back $7.95, Kin­dle $2.99) thank-you. Kind­ly click here.

Chapter 1. Germany Arming: Encountering Hitler, 1933-34

“Revi­sion­ists” claim Churchill was “for Hitler before he was against him.” To say he admired Hitler is true in one abstract sense: he admired the Führer’s polit­i­cal skill, his abil­i­ty to dom­i­nate and to lead.…

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Pearl Harbor +75: All in the Same Boat. Still.

Pearl Harbor +75: All in the Same Boat. Still.

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A slight­ly extend­ed ver­sion of my piece on Pearl Har­bor: “How, 75 years ago today, we were saved,” in The Amer­i­can Spec­ta­tor, 7 Decem­ber 2016….

Sev­en­ty-five years ago today, Win­ston Churchill was pon­der­ing sur­vival. Hitler gripped Europe from France to deep inside Rus­sia. Nazi U-boats were stran­gling British ship­ping; Rommel’s Afri­ka Korps was advanc­ing on Suez. Britain’s only ally beside the Empire/Commonwealth, the Red Army, was fight­ing before Moscow. Amer­i­ca remained supportive…and aloof.

Eigh­teen months ear­li­er he had become prime min­is­ter. No one else had want­ed the task. “God alone knows how great it is,” he mut­tered, his eyes fill­ing.…

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Maisky and Churchill: Hard to Put Down

Maisky and Churchill: Hard to Put Down

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Ivan Maisky: “The great­est sin of mod­ern states­man is vac­il­la­tion and ambi­gu­i­ty of thought and action.”

Gabriel Gorodet­sky, ed., The Maisky Diaries: Red Ambas­sador to the Court of St. James’s. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 634 pages, $28.80, Kin­dle $19.99, audio­book $36.32.

Excerpt­ed from the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. To read in full, click here.

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A strik­ing work of schol­ar­ship (actu­al­ly an abridge­ment of a three-vol­ume com­plete work com­ing in 2016), this book will inspire fresh schol­ar­ship on Churchill, Rus­sia and World War II. Ivan Maisky was a pen­e­trat­ing observ­er of 1932-43 Britain, and Gabriel Gorodet­sky con­nects every long gap in his diaries with informed accounts of what was hap­pen­ing.…

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mythology
Vox Non-Populi: More Churchill Mythology

Vox Non-Populi: More Churchill Mythology

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Win­ston Churchill was no saint; it is a dis­ser­vice to pre­tend he was. But he is too com­plex  to be pigeon­holed by writ­ers who crit­i­cize selec­tive­ly. Hills­dale College’s Churchill Project responds to the mythol­o­gy. Read full arti­cle.

Excerpt

Win­ston Churchill is in the news, as is often the case.  On Feb­ru­ary 11th, Pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Bernie Sanders had words of praise for Churchill’s war lead­er­ship. Vox Media has crit­i­cized him and Churchill in sharp lan­guage.  Are the crit­i­cisms of Churchill true?

Dur­ing the Demo­c­rat debate on 11 Feb­ru­ary 2-16, can­di­dates were asked to name two lead­ers, one Amer­i­can and one for­eign, who would influ­ence their pol­i­cy deci­sions.…

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Churchill on Trial: Washington, 1953

Churchill on Trial: Washington, 1953

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In ear­ly 1953, Win­ston Churchill was placed on tri­al by his peers, with Pres­i­dent Tru­man the pre­sid­ing judge, for com­plic­i­ty in the use of atom­ic bombs. To any­one who may write to say that he and Tru­man were mak­ing light of events caus­ing thou­sands of deaths, the answer is twofold: 1) How do you know they were mak­ing light?; and 2) This is in answer to a his­tor­i­cal query. Sources: Clark Clif­ford, rec­ol­lec­tion, to Richard Lang­worth, 1988. Mar­garet Tru­man, “After the Pres­i­den­cy,” in Life, 1 Decem­ber 1972, 69-70. Also record­ed in her book, Har­ry S. Truman.

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Mar­garet Tru­man wrote: “Dur­ing our last weeks in the White House, Prime Min­is­ter Churchill arrived for a vis­it.…

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EU
Churchill to Roosevelt, 1944: “I think it would be a great pity if you and [de Gaulle] did not meet. I do not see why I have all the luck.” WSC (wearing his uniform as Honorary Air Commodore) and de Gaulle inspecting French troops at Marrakesh, Morocco, January 1944. (Wikimedia-Public Domain)
EU and Churchill’s Views

EU and Churchill’s Views

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EU Enough! In debates about the EU (Euro­pean Union), and Britain’s June 2016 ref­er­en­dum opt­ing to leave, much mis­in­for­ma­tion was cir­cu­lat­ed on whether Churchill would be for “Brex­it” or “Remain.” The fact is, we don’t know, since no one can ask him.

Promi­nent­ly quot­ed in this con­text is a remark Churchill made to de Gaulle—at least accord­ing to de Gaulle—in Uni­ty, his 1942-44 war mem­oirs: “…each time we must choose between Europe and the open sea, we shall always choose the open sea.”

Nothing to do with the EU

War­ren Kimball’s Churchill and Roo­sevelt: The Com­plete Cor­re­spon­dence (III, 169), nice­ly clears up this quo­ta­tion.…

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Boris Says the Strangest Things

Boris Says the Strangest Things

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Boris John­son, whose book, The Churchill Fac­tor, is fet­ed wide­ly, speaks his mind with a smile. Like Mr. Oba­ma, he’s a chap I’d like to share a pint with at the local.

But fame and lik­a­bil­i­ty don’t a Churchill schol­ar make. And in that depart­ment, Boris John­son needs some help.

His remarks are quot­ed from a Novem­ber 14th speech at the Yale Club in New York City.

Boris Fact-checks

1) Lend-Lease, Roosevelt’s World War II “loan” of $50 bil­lion worth of war materiel to the Allies, “screwed” the British.

I queried Pro­fes­sor War­ren Kim­ball of Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty, edi­tor of the Churchill-Roo­sevelt Cor­re­spon­dence and sev­er­al books on World War II, who wrote:

The U.S.…

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Berg
Moe Berg spent his last five years, 1935-39, in the big leagues with the Red Sox, where he joined another Senators alumnus, the immortal Joe Cronin. (Princeton Alumni Weekly)
Moe Berg: “Give My Regards to the Catcher” —Franklin Roosevelt

Moe Berg: “Give My Regards to the Catcher” —Franklin Roosevelt

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Who was Moe Berg? Merely a major baseball league catcher who spoke fifteen languages and spied for his country in World War II. He has no brass plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame, but they display his Medal of Merit.

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Naked
FDR and Churchill at the White House. (AP)
“Nothing to Hide”: The Truth about Churchill’s Naked Encounter

“Nothing to Hide”: The Truth about Churchill’s Naked Encounter

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Stark Naked

Churchill (step­ping naked from his bath): “The Prime Min­is­ter of Great Britain has noth­ing to hide from the Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States.” **

[Also quot­ed as: “You see, Mr. Pres­i­dent, I have noth­ing to hide.”]

Churchill alleged­ly said this dur­ing his vis­it to the White House in Decem­ber-Jan­u­ary 1941.  The Japan­ese had attacked Pearl Har­bor and Amer­i­ca was in the war.  The encounter was con­firmed by Churchill’s body­guard, Wal­ter Thomp­son, and one of his sec­re­taries, Patrick Kin­na. On the strength of their com­ments I includ­ed it as “like­ly” in Churchill By Himself.…

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