Who is Winston Churchill?

Some would say that with an American mother and a British father, Churchill was the perfect wartime leader. He became one of the most enduring symbols of the Second World War, an image so linked with the survival of Britain and the rigors of wartime London, that he is forever remembered as one of the great heroes in one of the great struggles of all time.

He was highly educated, arrogant, complex and not always successful or appreciated-he was voted out of office even before World War II ended, despite his Herculean efforts on behalf of the people and the country. He was a man of a different era: He was part of, and believed in, the British aristocracy and the British Empire (especially the Raj in India), yet was absolutely committed to the efforts against fascism and world conquest. It was as if two different personalities existed in one man.

What made him Prime Minister?

Trying to discover the roots of Churchill’s heroism in his childhood can be challenging. He was born into privilege as a child of English nobility. In the tradition of the British aristocracy, he spent most of his childhood in boarding schools. He was distant from his parents-although fascinated by his father’s political career. He is said to have been a lonely, rather disappointing boy who did not do well in school (although he would one day receive the Nobel Prize in literature).

As a young man, he had decided on a military career. Like many from his class, he went to Sandhurst, the Royal Military Academy, famous for training the officers and gentlemen of the British colonial army. His first tour of duty was to India, where more time was spent in leisure than in military activity. Eager for action, he managed to find his way to Cuba and then to the Sudan, which region the British army was attempting to retake.

Interestingly, the young officer Churchill often acted as a war correspondent for various London papers. In fact, his first act of heroism occurred while working as a correspondent during the Boer War of 1899. Although eventually captured and put in a prison camp, he managed to take charge during a difficult trainwreck that threatened the lives of soldiers and passengers. He escaped from prison and made his way out of South Africa; when he returned, it was as a commissioned officer.

His exploits in the Boer War made him a celebrity in Britain. Throughout this period of his life, he “seems to have generated a bit of controversy. Historians are never quite sure of some of the facts or events as recounted by Churchill. He clearly was a young man who thought nothing of altering facts to fit the circumstances-or so some of his critics charged.

The year 1900 saw the beginning of his political career, when he was elected to Parliament as a Conservative. Throughout his early years, he would cause a great deal of dissatisfaction with his fellow Conservatives, to the extent that he changed sides and became a Liberal member. Although he would eventually rejoin the Conservatives, he seemed able to have it both ways-working in various Cabinet-level positions, including First Lord of the Admiralty. It was while he was First Lord that an infamous battle was planned in T\irkey at Gallipoli, which turned out to be a disaster for British and Australian forces-a fiasco so serious that Churchill was forever associated with it.

It was his nature to meddle in matters in which he probably had no business being involved. As First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill took the leadership in developing a then-unique weapon of war-the battle tank. Historians and others have questioned how the navy was expected to bear the costs for the development of the tank. Many inside and outside the government thought that this was massive misuse of departmental funds; but that, of course, did not stop Churchill.

With World War I came a new political and social experiment, the Russian form of communism (then often called Bolshevism), which made many Western leaders very nervous. Churchill was particularly alarmed by this movement and urged the government to intervene on behalf of the White Russians against the Communists.

It was the nature of Churchill and his worldview that Britain should be involved in every major (and sometimes minor) regional dispute. A parallel example can be seen in his support of the Empire, particularly the jewel in the crown, India, where he fiercely opposed home rule and, of course, ultimate independence.

“The whole world by this point had recognized Gandhi as a great and good man. Churchill would have nothing to do with him; this attitude simply reinforces the view of a man who was stalled in a mid-19th century time warp.”

If India could not have home rule, Ireland could and would. Churchill worked with members of the government to help create the Irish Free State in the 1920s. But his worldview became even more complicated with the advent of Mussolini and Italian-style fascism. He admired the man and his policies, primarily as a counter to communism. Fortunately, he did not take the same view of Hitler and was an early and strident alarmist over German rearmament and Hitler’s worldview-a view that nevertheless held the British and their world empire in great admiration!

Almost alone in government, he opposed appeasement with Germany and Hitler. He was vocal in his denunciation of Neville Chamberlain and the Munich Agreement, which gave a good part of then Czechoslovakia to Germany on the pretext that a German minority was being abused by the Czech majority. Naturally, history and world events would prove that appeasement would not work. The Chamberlain government fell, and Churchill and a wartime coalition government took over.

Stalin referred to Churchill as an English bulldog for his stubbornness and his unwillingness to compromise. Hitler found Churchill even more difficult. With the fall of France, Britain stood alone in 1940 as the only viable opponent of the German war machine. It was in this context of defiance and uncompromising belief in the invincibility of Britain that he rallied the people with his famous blood, sweat and tears speech-one of many for which he would be famous.

If Churchill ever displayed genius, it was in his systematic courting of Franklin Roosevelt. Britain needed U.S. aid, U.S. armaments and, most importantly, needed the United States as an active ally in the war against Germany, Italy and Japan. Churchill and Roosevelt began what would be called the special relationship between the two countries. He was also the author of the Europe-first strategy as well as an early supporter of the Atlantic Charter (the beginnings of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-NATO).

Postwar, Churchill found himself out of office until his political return in 1951. He continued his fierce resistance against Stalin and communism, yet was more than willing to protect British colonial interests in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

One of his most famous pronouncements was that an iron curtain was descending on Eastern Europe as the Communists took almost complete control of a third of the continent.

The Legacy of the Man

Churchill was a rogue, scholar, the ultimate politician, historian and a conservative. He saw no reason to change the world order or the British control of nearly half of it. At the same time, he exuded an almost greater-than-life connection with the British people-as though he truly was one of them in their hardship and suffering. Ironically, born to a wealthy family, he ended up with little money and used his writings and books to maintain a lavish lifestyle.

How could a man so seemingly out of touch with the contemporary world attract such enthusiasm and public acclaim? Was he perhaps the master of public image? Or is it perhaps that his words speak of a genius in public relations, history and international politics? If nothing else, his abiding legacy is that of a man willing to fill a huge void at a moment in history when the world was in chaos and on the brink of anarchy.

Courtesy

The enduring hero worship of Winston Churchill by Americans is immortalized in the Washington, D.C. based organization called The Churchill Centre, which is designed for a broad base of readers and interested parties. Visit www.winstonchurchill.org for more details and a wonderful resource.

A thoroughly enjoyable site gives ample evidence of Churchill’s cleverness and creativity. Readers can find dozens of quotes from Churchill by visiting www.brainyquote.com.