Posted on 12/30/2017 4:47:10 AM PST by RoosterRedux
In a key episode, Churchill went to the larger Cabinet and won overwhelming approval for his stalwartness. Here, he made his famous statement, “We shall go and we shall fight it out, here or elsewhere, and if at last the long story is to end, it were better it should end, not through surrender, but only when we are rolling senseless on the ground.”
After the war, Churchill wrote of the reaction of his colleagues: “Quite a number seemed to jump up from the table and came running to my chair, shouting and patting me on the back. There is no doubt had I at this juncture faltered at all in leading the nation, I should have been hurled out of office.”
He didn’t falter. Churchill tapped into and built up the resolve of the British people. “There was a white glow,” he wrote later, “overpowering, sublime, which ran through our island from end to end.” Hitler wouldn’t neutralize the British, who escaped Dunkirk and kept up the fight.
The so-called Great Man theory of history might be overly simplistic, but history indisputably has its great men. Darkest Hour does justice to one of them.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
I like pigs.
'Dogs look up to us. cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals'
A heated disagreement ensued.
At the same time, one of Churchill's cats (Mickey) was playing with the phone cord during the conversation.
Churchill to his cat: "Get off the line you fool!"
The Lord Chancellor thought Churchill was speaking to him.
Churchill quickly correct the situation: "Not you Lord Chancellor... Mickey, my cat was on the line."
Churchill gave Mickey the foot but chased him down and apologize profusely, proudly announcing to his valet the next morning, all is well, Mickey came to visit me this morning. And I am forgiven.
I was young at the time but I remember when Churchill died. I have only the vaguest memories of the Kennedy assassination but Winston left this mortal coil a bit more than a year later and I still remember the newspaper front page with his picture and the bold headline saying Man Of The Century Dies. True words.
And like I hinted at, then proceeded to enslave half the known world for 60 years...
Whew! Saved the world they did!
FDR's hands were tied, the mood in the country was solidly isolationist. Listen to FDR's "Arsenal of Democracy" speech in December of 1940, he was literally begging for us to get into the war, and frankly I think FDR was hoping that the Axis would declare war on the US, and get it over with.
It was a team effort.
Britain stood alone and withstood Hitler.
Russia bled Germany white.
And the US had the manpower and production capabilities to finish the job.
It took all three at various times to get the job done.
Churchill was the only one in the early 1930s that knew the threat Hitler was, and he was laughed at and ridiculed and almost run out, and that was by his own party.
a good analysis. It took the combined military and industrial power of the United States, the Soviet Union and the British Empire to destroy the Nazi regime in Germany.
would you have preferred 10 million Americans and Brits to have died against the Germans instead of Russians.
yes - he was bound by neutrality act - and unable to change the mood of the country. i don’t know about your presumption - he could have done much much more, especially to help the Jews.
Once again, the two are separate issues, I am glad the Russians et al fought the Germans too, but I do not attribute the liberation of Western Europe and the enslavement of Eastern Europe as similar victories....
Do you?
My only comment applied to WWII. you brought up post WWII.
Without the Russians, there may not have even been a Liberation of Western Europe.
Sir, you cannot prove a negative. Conjecture at best.
What happened, happened.
The fact is the US was the impetus and mass effect that won the war and liberated Western Europe. Another fact was the Nazis/Axis were confronted by two major opponents.
More than one US general thought the logical conclusion would be war with Russia to liberate Eastern Europe- they were military men. The politicians sliced and diced E Europe to placate the Russians, the Poles wanted nothing to do with that plan, among other ex pats.
I take nothing from the Russian serviceman/woman as far as the war against the Nazis go. After that, they became our enemies and the forced occupiers of formerly free countries.
Indeed, I learned that the Russian citizen was taught that the US were the villains for occupying W Europe- that they were protecting Russian territory from the mad Americans who wanted Siberia or something and I was one of them! (FRG 84-87). Viewpoint and disinformation I suppose.
Happy New Year and Peace to you and yours.
“I take nothing from the Russian serviceman/woman as far as the war against the Nazis go.” That has been my point all along.
I look forward to seeing the darkest hour. I am watching The Crown on NetFlix, a lot on post-war Churchill and Lithgow’s performance is impressive.
Totallly agree with you. We saw it yesterday & highly recommend it.
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