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Pericles and Churchill: Matching Leadership, Millennia Apart
15
Feb
2024
By JUSTIN D. LYONS
Pericles sought to preserve Athens, its glory, power and reputation. Churchill demanded struggle not only for Britain, but for the very meaning of Britain—something larger than its borders, more powerful than its military strength and, ultimately more important than its survival: liberty. Churchill’s war was a battle for the freedom of man, to be defended first at home and then upon whatever far-flung fields the conflict would rage.
Writers and Writing: Churchill to the Authors’ Club
22
Jan
2024
By WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
“Someone—I forget who—has said: ‘Words are the only things which last forever.’ That is, to my mind, always a wonderful thought. The most durable structures raised in stone by the strength of man, the mightiest monuments of his power, crumble into dust, while the words endure. And, leaping across the gulf of three thousand years, they light the world for us today.”
Great Writing: Churchill as Biographer, Novelist, Explorer, Memoirist
11
Jan
2024
By JOHN BUCHAN, LORD TWEEDSMUIR
“Churchill offers a striking and a moving picture. A close observance of the words, however, will show that its vividness is built up entirely by the use of simple words simply arrayed. It owes nothing to elaboration, nothing to stilted conception. Its effectiveness is the direct result of clarity.”
Great Contemporaries: George Marshall and America at War (2)
05
Jan
2024
1
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
Despite sharp wartime differences, the British never forgot George Marshall. At the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, as he entered Westminster Abbey representing the United States, the vast congregation stood as a mark of respect. When he was hospitalized and dying in 1959, Churchill (by then “Sir Winston”), on a visit to Washington, accompanied President Eisenhower to see him. He left Walter Reed Medical Center with tears in his eyes.
Great Contemporaries: The Three Lives of Churchill’s Hitler Essays
03
Jan
2024
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Did Churchill ever admire Hitler? The question, ridiculous on its face, is frequently asked. Critics have long quoted selectively from Churchill to show he was “for Hitler before he was against him.” In fact, Churchill never deviated in his view of Hitler, who was himself so infuriated that he lodged a diplomatic protest against Churchill’s “personal attack.”
Great Contemporaries: Marshall, “The American Carnot” (1)
15
Dec
2023
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
Marshall’s role is usually discussed now in terms of his contributions to Anglo-American strategy. His clashes with Churchill and his formidable Chief of Imperial General Staff General Sir Alan Brooke well known. But the skill with which he built a small, somewhat obsolescent force into a mighty army was staggering. He selected and promoted its leaders, oversaw its organization and training, secured its equipment, worked with industry, and managed relations with the President, Congress and a public anxious about “their boys.”
Best and Jenkins on Churchill, Empire, India and the Middle East
07
Dec
2023
By LARRY P. ARNN
“Let us say, for example, that we form the view that children in some distant land should not be taught the method and the rightness of suicidal murder of civilians. Let us say that they should not be taught to kill people because of their race or religion. Let us say that their families should not be paid large sums when they do it; that teenagers should not be instructed how to carry ugly bombs around as if they were knapsacks. Let us say that we propose to stop this. This is a lot to prevent.”
Timeline: Winston Churchill and the Road to Israel, 1947-49
05
Dec
2023
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
“We are told that there are a handful of terrorists on one side and 100,000 British troops on the other. How much longer are they to stay there? And stay for what? In order that on a threat to kill hostages we show ourselves unable to execute a sentence duly pronounced by a competent tribunal. It is not good enough. I never saw anything less recompensive for the efforts now employed than what is going on in Palestine.” —WSC, 31 January 1947
Timeline: Winston Churchill on Palestine, 1945-46
27
Nov
2023
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
“[I]t is impossible to avoid expressing deep regret at the many changes of tactics and method, at the needless disappointment created throughout world Jewry by the failure to fulfill the hopes which the party opposite excited by their promises and convictions at the General Election, and above all, at the lack of any policy worthy of the name. This absence of any policy or decision on these matters, which have become more complicated as they proceed, has allowed havoc and hatred to flare and run rife throughout Palestine for more than a year and no one knows where we are today.” —WSC, 12 November 1946
Reporting Churchill: “They’re an Awful Bunch of Wolves…”
31
Oct
2023
By RON CYNEWULF ROBBINS
“He did not speak rapidly, but the richness of his phrases proved demanding. We were exuberant, almost festive, whenever Churchill was our assignment. I cherish my recollection of the tumultuous reception we gave him at a Press Gallery dinner. ‘I am among my pals tonight,’ he said and raised a glass. That was his entire speech.”
Bromance in Naples: The Wooing of Jacky Fisher, 1912
12
Oct
2023
1
By DAVE TURRELL
When war came, the Grand Fleet was oil-fired and fully mobilized. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, built to Fisher’s and Churchill’s specifications, outgunned the Germans. All could be traced to their Naples démarche. But in wooing Fisher back, Churchill had unknowingly embraced his nemesis.
Remembrances: A Young Irishman at Sir Winston’s Funeral
05
Oct
2023
1
By CHARLES LYSAGHT
“Unlike many Irish children of my generation, I was brought up to admire Winston Churchill. My father, although nationalist enough, always uttered his name with reverence. He believed that he had saved us as well as the British from the evil Hitler. Churchill’s defiant orations, received at home in those perilous years on our crackling Telefunken wireless, had made a deep impression.”