Winston Churchill was the offspring of a lady born and raised in Virginia and an up-and-coming young man in British politics. The overwhelming tragedy he was raised with was that his young father resigned from Government in protest and was never allowed back in. That preyed on his mind the rest of his life.
He was hero in the Boer War. As a young man before World War I he entered Parliament and was so famous he was regularly cartooned in Punch. Churchill first gained a high position in Government during World War I. In that position his only accomplishment was in conceiving and pushing through one of history’s greatest military blunders, the attack on Gallipoli.
This, too, preyed on his mind. But Churchill could never really blame himself for that pointless slaughter.
In the 1930s Churchill was right where his father had been. He retired from politics, painted, wrote and was quietly going nuts.
Chamberlain’s Conservative Party, to which Churchill switched when his own and his father’s Liberal Party died, was in power. The only way for Churchill to get power again was to join the anti-Chamberlain forces inside the ruling party. He took over the leadership of the War Party against Chamberlain’s Appeasement. There was no other way for him to get out of the back benches.
The strategy worked. Churchill avoided his father’s fate by becoming leader of the fanatical War Party.
#1 by lyulf on 04/25/2007 - 11:55 am
I have hardly any politician heroes & Churchill isn’t one of ’em.
Seems like pointless slaughter(er) all the way ’round.
Maybe he should’ve stuck to painting & laid off the jewce. 😉
#2 by richard on 04/25/2007 - 12:20 pm
For the record, Churchill’s father was a Conservative, not a Liberal. Winston joined the Conservatives, then the Liberals then the Conservatives again.
As a Brit, I think of him as the worst thing to happen to my country since Cromwell let the jews back in.
#3 by Bob on 04/25/2007 - 12:28 pm
Thanks for the correction, richard.
#4 by Robbie on 04/25/2007 - 3:15 pm
I understand Churchill liked to walk around his offices and such and suddenly throw off whatever he was wearing and flash everyone every chance he got. I also remember hearing that after he retired and moved to Marrakesh (I remember the name by the silly song: da da da ..the Marrakesh express…) Churchill was hated and despised by the natives there because of his addiction to sex with little black boys. Apparently the authorities there not only looked the other way but saw to it that his supply never ran low. Incidentally, the Science fiction writer and fellow Brit, “Sir” Arthur C. Clarke, enjoys the same pleasures in Sri Lanka and is equally well respected by the natives there on account of his apparent immunity to prosecution for child molesting. Although Clarke has at least been brought up on charges there. I suppose that he might be too old by now to enjoy young boys (I think Clarke is still alive, the last I heard).
#5 by Alan B. on 04/25/2007 - 4:32 pm
Was Churchill the right man who would do the wrong thing? My guess is, he was the usefull idiot, weak on character and morally corruptable.
#6 by Peter on 04/25/2007 - 6:06 pm
And how did Churchill end up? He had a villa adjacent to Somerset Maughan’s on the Riviera, in part paid for by a large sum from Life magazine for an article after the second war. He specified that it be paid in cash in France. A tax cheat. Anyway, a graduate student obtained an interview with elderly, dotty Maughan. The old man had enough left on the ball to notice that the researcher was realizing that he had wasted his time and purse traveling to southern France. To ease the pain, Maughen told the youngster. “If you think I’m gaga, go next door and look at Winston.”
I’m getting there myself.
Back Bay Grouch
#7 by shari on 04/25/2007 - 6:42 pm
It’s coming unraveled, isn’t it? I never thought about the Germans successfully stopping Communism in Western Europe. How blind we have been! But, I can say that we were not taught, ANYTHING, starting in grade school in the fifties. Churchill may have been weak on character, but I suspect that Roosevelt was worse.
#8 by AFKAN on 04/26/2007 - 1:46 am
The Artist Formerly Known As Nobody replies:
One of the greatest tragedies in all of Western history is Churchill’s failure to accept any of the NINE peace offers Hitler made to him.
If Churchill had accepted them, there just might still be a British Empire – or a much more robust Commonwealth!
The irony, of course, is “Only the JEW, won World War II.”
France and Britain went into the war with Empires, and ended up with colonies they soon lost.
I think it was Elliot Janeway who noted that Roosevelt refused to send machine tools to England, sending only finished goods that England paid for with ever-increasing amounts of debt. England ended the war with virtually no modern manufacturing technology…
There is a famous picture of Churchill in his dotage, sitting on a lawn chair with blankets over his legs, looking so sad and forlorn. I suspect the author of “A History of the English Speaking Peoples” realizes the horrific price his people paid, for his thirty pieces of silver.
#9 by Bob on 04/27/2007 - 9:24 am
AFKAN, I just used your NINE peace offers fact in SF against an anti.