Posted on 04/09/2016 10:16:21 AM PDT by Kaslin
Why does the United States honor Winston Churchill on April 9? Why not, for example, May 10? That was the day in 1940 when, with liberty in retreat, he became Britain’s prime minister, sure that he knew a good deal about it all, certain he would not fail, impatient for the morning….
But April 9 has its own significance for Americans. That was the day, in 1963, when President Kennedy proclaimed Sir Winston an honorary citizen of the United States.
Churchill was too infirm to attend in person. But it is always worth recalling what he thought about it all, in a letter to the president, read by his son:
“In this century of storm and tragedy, I contemplate with high satisfaction the constant factor of the interwoven and upward progress of our peoples. Our comradeship and our brotherhood in war were unexampled. We stood together, and because of that fact the free world now stands.
“Nor has our partnership any exclusive nature: the Atlantic community is a dream that can well be fulfilled to the detriment of none and to the enduring benefit and honour of the great democracies.”
Of course Churchill believed that “nothing surpasses 1940.” Few would gainsay him.
In 1940 he gave a country, outnumbered and outgunned, alone except for its Empire–Commonwealth, the courage to stand the “faithful guardians of truth and justice”—until “those who were hitherto half blind were half ready.”
That year proved likewise that one person can make a difference. As Charles Krauthammer observed: “Only Churchill carries that absolutely required criterion: indispensability. Without Churchill the world today would be unrecognizable—dark, impoverished, tortured.”
And so we won. Western civilization was saved. Yet it was not, William F. Buckley Jr. argued, “the significance of that victory, mighty and glorious though it was, that causes the name of Churchill to make the blood run a little faster....It is the roar that we hear, when we pronounce his name….
“It is simply mistaken that battles are necessarily more important than the words that summon men to arms, or who remember the call to arms. The battle of Agincourt was long forgotten as a geopolitical event, but the words of Henry V, with Shakespeare to recall them, are imperishable in the mind, even as which side won the battle of Gettysburg will dim from the memory of those who will never forget the words spoken about that battle by Abraham Lincoln….
“The genius of Churchill was his union of affinities of the heart and of the mind, the total fusion of animal and spiritual energy.”
Hillsdale College seeks to refract that energy with two unique teaching tools: Winston S. Churchill and The Churchill Documents, comprisingthe official biography, and the Churchill Papers of Sir Martin Gilbert, his biographer for 40 years.
As we produce each new document volume—this year reaching the eve of D-Day—we are struck by the sheer volume and variety of the subjects Churchill grappled with: enemies and allies; allocation of personnel and equipment between competing theaters of war; urgent pleading from statesmen and generals, often demanding the impossible; cabinet dialogue and argument; summit meetings; Parliamentary business; public communications; appointments; postwar planning—on and on for 2,500 pages.
Nowhere is there so thorough a record of one statesman’s decision-making; nowhere were the decisions so consequential. Even now, in the digital age, Churchill’s workload would tax several capable people. His output was extraordinary, his reasoning understandable, communications thoughtful, his scope global. And there was this rare quality: it was simply impossible for Winston Churchill to write a boring sentence.
Today, as in 1963, we study Churchill because he stood for something—the principle that “the people own the government, and not the government the people.” He exemplified certain critical human possibilities that are always worth bringing to the attention of thoughtful people. In 1943 he spoke at Harvard of our heritage:
“Law, language, literature—these are considerable factors. Common conceptions of what is right and decent, a marked regard for fair play, especially to the weak and poor, a stern sentiment of impartial justice, and above all the love of personal freedom, or as Kipling
put it: ‘Leave to live by no man’s leave underneath the law’—these are common
conceptions on both sides of the ocean among the English-speaking peoples.”
Winston Churchill, the truly indispensable man of the 20th Century.
God knows we need one today.
Winston Churchill was truly one of the most remarkable men of modern times.
Churchill must be rolling over in his grave at how the country he saved has invited the enemy in, and is giving in in the name of political correctness.
Chartwell booksellers in NYC is dedicated to him. They have an interesting web site. Can’t afford many items.
We definitely need someone with the gumption of Churchill....
Hello, Donald.....
I’m awaiting Obama’s Churchill Day statement.
He was by no means perfect...no human is. But he was one of the few humans who stretched the limits of their abilities...his were immense.
The very first act by the new president should be to have the bust of Churchill returned to the White House.
English-Speaking Peoples!!! Sloooowly I turned...
I had to read his history of same, in homeschool. Did not appreciate. Fortunately it was followed by a study of his books on WW2 (six volumes). I now believe the idea was not to make me an expert on the war (and I'm not) but most efficiently to teach me modern history, English composition and literature from a single source. I still have numerous editions of Churchill's works. They're the reading equivalent of comfort food, to be picked up when I need to be picked up mentally.
Churchill rocks!
Why would Congress make a man who had an American mother an honorary citizen when he was already a natural born citizen on his mother’s side......./s
LIKE
bump for later
Interestingly enough I just read in the Daily Mail that the Archbishop of Cantebury was recently discovered to be the illegitimate son of Winston Chruchhill’s private secretary.
I can’t believe he was turned out in 1945 for gibsmedat socialist Clement Attlee, despicable.
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