Truths and Heresies

The evidence suggests that Churchill had a most prosaic source for phrase that quickly became his, © Fulton, 1946. But his many references to “iron curtain” make for an interesting line of enquiry. It shows (to our surprise) that Churchill used the term at least six times before he arrived to stun the world in Missouri.

“Every one of us leading politicians has to ask ourselves whether we have the right, whether we can in all conscience force our country into war….[But] Masaryk was right. Death is better than slavery. [If war does come] “we’ll smash them to smithereens so they don’t trouble us for a century or more.” —WSC to Hubert Ripka, 22 June 1938

Libertarian disdain for Churchill stems from his 1940 premiership, without which, they believe, America would not have gone to war with Germany. Could they have lived with the consequences of a Nazi triumph? Churchill prevented that consequence. The world which resulted from his stubborn courage is better for it—and perfectly willing to accept the judgment of history.

“What I mean by frightfulness is the inflicting of great slaughter or massacre upon a particular crowd of people, with the intention of terrorising not merely the rest of the crowd, but the whole district or the whole country. We cannot admit this doctrine in any form. Frightfulness is not a remedy known to the British pharmacopoeia.” —WSC

Churchill’s did tell West that “a philosopher,” not himself, might be unmoved by the loss of “superfluous millions.” That doesn’t altogether divorce him from what must seem a heartless remark today. In 1898 he was very young. Few of us would welcome hearing some of our words at age 24 represented as our lifetime philosophy. And Churchill is one of the most quoted historical figures.

Churchill has been depicted as indifferent to the Great Smog or the deaths and illnesses it brought. “In actuality, there’s little evidence for any of these dramatic interpretations, with most newspaper reports from the time mainly focusing on the effects of the fog itself and not the politicians in charge.”

Wavell’s and Churchill’s actions to ease the Bengal Famine are explained elsewhere. We focus here only on a misrepresentation of Churchill based on Viceroy Wavell’s diary: “Winston sent me a peevish telegram to ask why Gandhi hadn’t died yet!” Wavell did write this but it was not a quote—and fairly peevish itself. Why don’t the critics publish what Churchill actually said? Here it is…

Jeremy Irons is a convincing Chamberlain, but it would have been better to avoid proclaiming that he was right about Munich.

His critics say: Well, if Churchill was not a fascist himself, he sympathized with them. As so often, investigation of what he actually said leads us to entirely different conclusions.

Rather than “savages, rascals and rapscallions,” rather than "a daughter State," Churchill saw the Irish as “a parent nation.”

The false claim that Churchill endorsed the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion obfuscates the reality of his views on Jews and Zionism.

Why invent a quote? Perhaps in the hope that “the specter of Winston will pause to embrace the willful quoter and smoke a cigar with him.”