"Churchill, who had been defeated for re-election as prime minister in 1945, was invited to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri where he gave this speech.Like Mr. Churchill, the prime minister of Israel praised the alliance between the two countries, thanked the U.S. for its sacrifices in World War II, and explained the threat in exquisite detail.
President Harry S. Truman joined Churchill on the platform and listened intently to his speech.
Churchill began by praising the United States, which he declared stood “at the pinnacle of world power.”
It soon became clear that a primary purpose of his talk was to argue for an even closer “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain -- the great powers of the “English-speaking world” -- in organizing and policing the postwar world. In particular, he warned against the expansionistic policies of the Soviet Union.
In addition to the “iron curtain” that had descended across Eastern Europe, Churchill spoke of “communist fifth columns” that were operating throughout western and southern Europe.
Drawing parallels with the disastrous appeasement of Hitler prior to World War II, Churchill advised that in dealing with the Soviets there was “nothing which they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for military weakness.”
Within days of Churchill taking office, all of what is now the European Union either would be in Hitler’s hands or could be considered pro-Nazi “neutral.”“Darkest Hour” gets its title from the understandable depression that had spread throughout the British government. Members of Churchill’s new War Cabinet wanted to sue for peace. Chamberlain and senior conservative politician Edward Wood both considered Churchill unhinged for believing [that] Britain could survive.Both appeasers dreamed that thuggish Italian dictator Benito Mussolini might be persuaded to beg Hitler to call off his planned invasion of Great Britain. They dreamed [that] Mussolini could save a shred of English dignity through an arranged British surrender.Not Churchill.
“Churchill came from a prestigious family with a long history of military service and joined the British Fourth Hussars upon his father’s death in 1895. During the next five years, he enjoyed an illustrious military career, serving in India, the Sudan, and South Africa, and distinguishing himself several times in battle. In 1899, he resigned his commission to concentrate on his literary and political career and in 1900 was elected to Parliament as a Conservative MP from Oldham. In 1904, he joined the Liberals, serving in a number of important posts before being appointed Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911, where he worked to bring the British navy to a readiness for the war he foresaw.In 1915, in the second year of World War I, Churchill was held responsible for the disastrous Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns, and he was excluded from the war coalition government. He resigned and volunteered to command an infantry battalion in France. However, in 1917, he returned to politics as a cabinet member in the Liberal government of Lloyd George. From 1919 to 1921, he was secretary of state for war and in 1924 returned to the Conservative Party, where two years later he played a leading role in the defeat of the General Strike of 1926.Out of office from 1929 to 1939, Churchill issued unheeded warnings of the threat of German and Japanese aggression.After the outbreak of World War II in Europe, Churchill was called back to his post as First Lord of the Admiralty and eight months later replaced the ineffectual Neville Chamberlain as prime minister of a new coalition government. In the first year of his administration, Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany, but Churchill promised his country and the world that the British people would “never surrender.” He rallied the British people to a resolute resistance and expertly orchestrated Franklin D. Rooseveltand Joseph Stalin into an alliance that eventually crushed the Axis.In July 1945, 10 weeks after Germany’s defeat, his Conservative government suffered an electoral loss against Clement Attlee’s Labour Party, and Churchill resigned as prime minister. He became leader of the opposition and in 1951 was again elected prime minister.Two years later, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his six-volume historical study of World War II and for his political speeches.In 1955, he retired as prime minister but remained in Parliament until 1964, the year before his death.”
"He was born on November 30th, 1874. We remember him as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Churchill was one of the most important leaders in modern British and world history."
We remember PM Winston Churchill, 1874-1965.
We discussed The Battle of Britain 1940 with Barry Jacobsen.........
P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
On this day in 1582, William Shakespeare, 18, and Anne Hathaway, 26, pay a 40-pound bond for their marriage license in Stratford-upon-Avon. Six months later, Anne gives birth to their daughter, Susanna, and two years later, to twins.
Lee was born while his father, a Chinese opera star, was on tour in America. The Lee family moved back to Hong Kong in 1941. Growing up, Lee was a child actor who appeared in some 20 Chinese films; he also studied dancing and trained in the Wing Chun style of gung fu (also known as kung fu). In 1959, Lee returned to America, where he eventually attended the University of Washington and opened a martial-arts school in Seattle. In 1964, he married Linda Emery, who in 1965 gave birth to Brandon Lee, the first of the couple’s two children. In 1966, the Lees relocated to Los Angeles and Bruce appeared on the television program The Green Hornet (1966-1967), playing the Hornet’s acrobatic sidekick, Kato. Lee also appeared in karate tournaments around the United States and continued to teach martial arts to private clients, including the actor Steve McQueen.In search of better acting roles than Hollywood was offering, Lee returned to Hong Kong in the early 1970s. He successfully established himself as a star in Asia with the action movies The Big Boss (1971) and The Way of the Dragon(1972), which he wrote, directed and starred in. Lee’s next film, Enter the Dragon, was released in the United States by Hollywood studio Warner Brothers in August 1973. Tragically, Lee had died one month earlier, on July 20, in Hong Kong, after suffering a brain edema believed to be caused by an adverse reaction to a pain medication. Enter the Dragon was a box-office hit, eventually grossing more than $200 million, and Lee posthumously became a movie icon in America.Like Hendrix and Morrison, you can identify his face in a heart beat.
We remember Alexander Dubček who was born in Uhrovec, nestled in the Strážovské Mountains of western Slovakia, on this day in 1921. He died in 1992.
We learned about Mr. Dubcek back in 1968 and "The Prague Spring". He was the face of that movement or a challenge to the old USSR and its control over Eastern Europe.
The USSR and The Warsaw Pact are now history. It all collapsed at the end of 1991. In other words, most young people younger than 35 have no emotional involvement with what we grew up with. They’ve probably never heard of the Berlin Wall or the 1956 Hungarian revolution or the atrocities of communism. Prague is now the capital of the Czech Republic and Slovakia is another country. It all seems like a past so long ago.
Some of us are old enough to remember this week when 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring.”
It was a dark day for freedom. Like the Hungarians in 1956, the people of Czechoslovakia were given a taste of Soviet “tolerance.” The “Prague Spring” was all about freedom and reforms but the Kremlin did not accept it and sent the tanks in.
A sad day for those of us who were watching from the West, especially when Fidel Castro defended the USSR. by saying among many things that the country was “…..heading toward a counter-revolutionary situation, toward capitalism and into the arms of imperialism.”
We remember today all the people who stood up to Soviet tanks in Prague. And we remember more victims of communism.
We remember that Augusto Pinochet was born on this day in 1914. He died in 2006. Back in 1988, General Augusto Pinochet had run Chile for 15 years. He overthrew President Salvador Allende in 1973 and took over a country in total chaos. His free market policies turned Chile around and created an economy that was the envy of the developing world. Unfortunately, he never had the legitimacy of an election. So he did something strange. He asked the people if he should continue, and they had a "plebiscite." Pinochet lost and left power. This is the story:
Gen. Augusto Pinochet's bid for eight more years in power ended in defeat today, as a united opposition beat him soundly in a presidential plebiscite of Pinochet's own design.
After a long night in which the opposition continued to announce returns showing a 60-percent vote against Pinochet and the government gave out practically no totals at all, a government spokesman announced early this morning that with three-fourths of the vote officially counted, Pinochet was losing with 53 percent of voters rejecting him. There would be no further vote totals until midday, he said.
Later, Interior Minister Sergio Fernandez, who had run Pinochet's campaign, announced that the regime would recognize the results of the vote, which he characterized as still provisional. Because of the democratic process that had transpired, "the great winner is the country," Fernandez said. Pinochet himself made no statement.
Chile said no, and Pinochet accepted the verdict. Let me add that it was time for Pinochet to go as much as I admired his economic accomplishments. As a Chilean told me back in 1988, Pinochet did a good job, but it was time to get our democracy back.
Down in Cuba, the situation is ripe for such a plebiscite. Cubans have never voted in a free and multi-party election. Yes, they vote in Cuba, but it's a sham, because the Communist Party is the only on the ballot.
President Biden should call for such a plebiscite with international observers. It should also say the U.S. will recognize the winner as the legitimate government and end the embargo immediately.
Will the Castro regime accept the challenge? No, but let's keep the pressure on.
We remember that Augusto Pinochet was born on this day in 1914. He died in 2006.
Back in 1988, General Augusto Pinochet had run Chile for 15 years. He overthrew President Salvador Allende in 1973 and took over a country in total chaos. His free market policies turned Chile around and created an economy that was the envy of the developing world. Unfortunately, he never had the legitimacy of an election. So he did something strange. He asked the people if he should continue, and they had a “plebiscite.” Pinochet lost and left power.
This is the story:
Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s bid for eight more years in power ended in defeat today, as a united opposition beat him soundly in a presidential plebiscite of Pinochet’s own design.
After a long night in which the opposition continued to announce returns showing a 60-percent vote against Pinochet and the government gave out practically no totals at all, a government spokesman announced early this morning that with three-fourths of the vote officially counted, Pinochet was losing with 53 percent of voters rejecting him. There would be no further vote totals until midday, he said.
Later, Interior Minister Sergio Fernandez, who had run Pinochet’s campaign, announced that the regime would recognize the results of the vote, which he characterized as still provisional. Because of the democratic process that had transpired, “the great winner is the country,” Fernandez said. Pinochet himself made no statement.
Chileans said no, and Pinochet accepted the verdict. Let me add that it was time for Pinochet to go as much as I admired his economic accomplishments. As a Chilean told me back in 1988, Pinochet did a good job, but it was time to get our democracy back.
Down in Cuba, the situation is ripe for such a plebiscite. Cubans have never voted in a free and multi-party election. Yes, they vote in Cuba, but it’s a sham, because the Communist Party is the only on the ballot.
President Biden should call for such a plebiscite with international observers. It should also say the U.S. will recognize the winner as the legitimate government and end the embargo immediately.
Will the Castro regime accept the challenge? No, but let’s keep the pressure on.
P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.
Dominic made his major-league debut on April 16, 1940, and had little trouble adjusting to the big leagues, hitting .301 and scoring 81 runs in 108 games in his rookie season. Going into spring training, Dom was concerned that he might not get to play because Boston was loaded with good outfielders: Ted Williams in left, Doc Cramer in center, Lou Finney in right, and Joe Vosmik, a 10-year veteran, as backup.But Dom, at age 23, had a solid spring and was able to beat out Finney, a .300 hitter the year before, for the starting right fielder’s job. Later in the season, Dom was moved to center field, and there he remained for the rest of his career. The Red Sox showed confidence in DiMaggio by trading Doc Cramer to the Senators during the offseason.Dom had fond memories of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, and especially the media interest in the DiMaggio brothers in center field. He recalled that the newspapers made a big deal out of the first time in 1940 when the Yankees visited Boston for a five-game series.Dom had 11 hits to Joe’s nine, or as Dom said, “Twenty hits for the family in one series.”One week later in New York, Joe advised his younger brother to move back because the ball carried well in that part of the ballpark. The next day Dom, taking Joe’s advice, was able to run down a fly ball hit 460 feet to deep center – off the bat of brother Joe.
During the ’42 season, as World War II expanded, many ballplayers were drafted into military service. Around this time Dom was labeled the “Little Professor” because of his 5-foot-9, 168-pound frame, his serious expression, and his glasses – necessary to correct his nearsightedness. Dom earned his second All-Star selection that season while on his way to hitting .286 with 110 runs scored, good for third in the league, 272 total bases, and 36 doubles. Early in the season, Dom tried to enlist in the Navy but was told that his vision was an issue. “I had to fight my way into the Navy,” said DiMaggio. “They rejected me because of my eyesight, and for the longest time, I told them I wanted to be in the Navy. I was not about to sit out the war.” Despite a 4-F classification, he was able to enlist after completing the season, and left work and home for a three-year stint in the United States Navy. While in the service, DiMaggio played for the Norfolk Naval Training Station team in Virginia and saw overseas duty as well.Dominic returned to baseball in 1946, along with Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, and many of the more than 500 professional baseball players who had served during wartime. The Red Sox had an amazing year, finishing 12 games ahead of the Tigers and 17 games ahead of the Yankees, with 104 wins and only 50 losses. Dom was once again an All-Star, hitting .316 and driving in 73 runs. The Red Sox were exuberant about playing in their first World Series since 1918 and very confident.