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Churchill Between the Wars
Churchill and the Rhineland: “They Had Only to Act to Win”
14
Sep
2023
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
It is the belief of many thoughtful historians that Churchill said and did nothing about the Rhineland. His actions are more complex than that. He did give mixed signals, but he also proposed solutions. When France refused action, he favored collective action. His public declarations were hardly a clarion call. But we must bear in mind also that he was not in office. The Rhineland marked Churchill’s final disillusionment over the League of Nations and impelled his efforts to secure Collective Security. The problem was that the willing were few—and demonstrably unwilling to cooperate.
Cancellation Attempts, 1939: Kitty Atholl, Winston Churchill
05
Jun
2023
2
By RICHARD COHEN
Even in her time a politician could be “cancelled” for saying things deemed unfashionable by the prevailing orthodoxy. Back then the orthodoxy was the Munich agreement. Her criticisms of it cost the Duchess of Atholl her party and her seat in Parliament. She went down fighting, but never wavered in her causes: human rights and Churchill’s campaign against Appeasement.
Great Contemporaries: The Age of Lloyd George (Part 4)
15
Sep
2022
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
“David Lloyd George's personal failings are clear, but a historian’s verdict ought to be that, in utterly unprecedented situations, he rose very well to the challenges—and far better than any conceivable alternative leader. Overshadowed now by the memory of Churchill, he deserves respectful remembrance in his own right.”
Great Contemporaries: Churchill in the Age of Lloyd George (Part 3)
09
Jun
2022
By RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN
Versailles is often viewed as short-sighted and vindictive, laying the foundation for future calamity. But Lloyd George was under enormous pressure to satisfy clamant allies whose mood was either deeply angry (France) or unrealistically messianic (America). At home, the Tories wanted a harsh peace. Churchill, still a Liberal and characteristically magnanimous, argued vainly for milder treatment of Germany.
Hitler’s “Tet Offensive”: Churchill and the Austrian Anschluss, 1938
05
Nov
2020
1
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Breathless media admiration of Hitler’s Anschluss obscured German military deficiencies that might have mattered if the democracies had stood firm.
Tags:
Adolf Hitler,
Alexander Lassner,
Anschluss,
Case Otto,
Erich Raeder,
Geoffrey Dawson,
Hapsburg Empire,
Hearst press,
Hermann Goering,
Joachim von Ribbentrop,
Kurt von Schuschnigg,
League of Nations,
Little Entente,
Neville Chamberlain,
Richard M. Langworth,
Unity Mitford,
Versailles Treaty,
Werner von Blomberg,
Werner von Fritsch,
Winston S. Churchill,
Churchill and the Presidents: Dwight Eisenhower, Sentiment and Politics
23
Jul
2020
1
By WARREN F. KIMBALL
In wartime, Eisenhower related to Churchill as junior to senior. As President, the relationship vastly changed, but ties of sentiment were still there.
Tags:
1953 Bermuda Conference,
Anglo-Persian Oil Company,
Anthony Eden,
Battle of Gettysburg,
Bermuda Conference,
Edgar Faure,
Harold Macmillan,
John Colville,
John Foster Dulles,
Joseph Stalin,
Klaus Larres,
Martin Gilbert,
Michael Howard,
Mohammad Mosaddegh,
Peter Boyle,
SHAEF,
Stephen Ambrose,
Winston S. Churchill,
Churchill and the Litigious Alfred Douglas: Two Trials and a Sonnet (Part 2)
02
Jul
2020
Churchill and the Litigious Lord Alfred: Two Trials and a Sonnet (Part 1)
25
Jun
2020
By MICHAEL MCMENAMIN
How Winston Churchill was invited to opine, and Lord Alfred Douglas was affronted by what he saw as an obvious conspiracy with Jewish financiers.
How Churchill Dodged the Flu Pandemic, and Others Were Not So Lucky
13
Apr
2020
By JOHN H. MAURER
Historical close calls, during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-21, remind us of the role of illness and chance in the fate of nations and their leaders.
The Folly of German Reparations
27
Jan
2016
By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
Despite the unpopularity of his moderate advice that Germany not be required to pay for war damages, Churchill continued to attempt to convince his constituents and friends of its wisdom. Not only would Germany be physically unable to pay, trying to make her would harm all of Europe, including Britain.