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Truths and Heresies
The Churchill Project - Hillsdale College > Truths and Heresies
Churchill Critiques: Changing Parties
21
Mar
2016
1
Vox’s Churchill Myths: There They Go Again
19
Feb
2016
By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
Winston Churchill was no saint, and it is a disservice to pretend otherwise. But he is too complex a figure to be pigeonholed by writers who criticize without considering the full picture. As William Manchester wrote, Churchill “always had second and third thoughts, and they usually improved as he went along. It was part of his pattern of response to any political issue that while his early reactions were often emotional, and even unworthy of him, they were usually succeeded by reason and generosity.”
Churchill and the Loss of Eastern Europe
15
Dec
2015
“The Power and the Glory”
28
Aug
2015
By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
In a video at the Liverpool Museum (“The Power and the Glory?”), Churchill is quoted as saying that Britain, having gained prosperity by her efforts, must be prepared to defend it: “We have got all we want in territory, and our claim to be left in the unmolested enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions.” I am an American and large numbers of my fellow citizens seem to struggle with the same issue; Churchill’s words suggest an answer. When did he say or write this?
Did Churchill “Bid to Nuke Russia”?
28
Aug
2015
By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
In late 2014, London’s Daily Mail produced a shock headline: “Winston Churchill's ‘bid to nuke Russia’ to win Cold War uncovered.” While the conversation is undoubtedly true, it is hardly new. It’s been known for decades that Churchill voiced such a thought several times in private conversation in 1946-47. What is not true is that Churchill ever “bid to nuke Russia.”
Winston Churchill and the Use of Chemical Warfare
05
Aug
2015
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Anyone who believes that Churchill was an enthusiast of lethal gas must produce better evidence than we have seen so far—and some acceptable explanation for the many instances when, faced with its possible use, Churchill and his commanders demurred.
While he never advocated the first use of lethal gas, Churchill's main aim in both world wars was victory. To that end he would consider almost anything. Describing the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 he had written similarly: "At the Admiralty we were in hot pursuit of most of the great key inventions and ideas of the war.... all were being actively driven forward or developed. Poison gas alone we had put aside—but not, as has been shown, from want of comprehension."
Winston Churchill’s Great Contemporaries: Alan Turing
08
Jul
2015
4
By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
Since the early 1990s it has been stated and endlessly repeated that Winston Churchill said Alan Turing OBE FRS (1912-1954) “made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany.” Turing’s contribution was indeed great, but there is no record of Churchill having issued such a singular encomium.
Churchill-Musso Non-Letters
29
May
2015
Churchill Knew About Pearl Harbor
14
May
2015
Dardanelles-Gallipoli Centenary
01
May
2015
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Churchill usually comes in for (and deserves) some of the blame for the tragic failure of the Gallipoli Peninsula landings, but rarely does everybody “get it right.” Churchill's reasons for the attack and his subsequent exoneration from blame casts a different light on the Dardanelles-Galipoli affair.
Did Winston Churchill Ever Wish to Convert to Islam?
24
Apr
2015
Did Churchill Exacerbate the Bengal Famine?
08
Apr
2015
25
By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
Reviewing a recent book, The Churchill Factor, by London Mayor Boris Johnson, a reviewer repeated a widespread canard that Winston Churchill caused the Bengal Famine. This allegation false; Churchill did everything he could in the midst of world war to save the Bengalis, and without him the famine would have been worse.