Churchill as I Knew Him
Here in 1946, at your inspired invitation, Sir Winston Churchill gave one of the greatest speeches of the Twentieth Century. His words here have ever since echoed down the years and round the world; and your invitation to me to join you in your celebration of that great event is an honour which I most deeply appreciate. Moreover, the degree which you have conferred on me is a further honour that I am proud to share with Sir Winston himself and his gracious daughter, Lady Soames.
I have never been, of course, in such a position of unique authority as he was to survey the world scene, and so it would be impertinent, though tempting, to speculate on what he would be saying if he were addressing you today, with all the remarkable changes being brought about by the global scene-shifters who have raised the infamous Iron Curtain. He would be soberly cheered by the triumph of western, indeed Christian, ideals; and he would be gratified that at last his generous words of 1946 are coming true. Despite the descent of the Iron Curtain, he said, ‘Above all we welcome constant, frequent and growing contacts between the Russian people and our own people on both sides of the Atlantic.’1 And he would today be relieved by the fulfillment – so far at least – of the optimism he expressed in 1955 after the first hydrogen bombs had been exploded: horrific though their consequences might be:
It may well be that we shall by a process of sublime irony have reached a stage in this story where safety will be the sturdy child of terror and survival the twin brother of annihilation.2
He himself had, of course, faced many grave situations, above all in 1940 when we in Britain were standing alone against the Nazi threat, and when he became Prime Minister. A few weeks after he had taken over, he called me in to advise him on a new development in the threat that we were about to face from the Luftwaffe, and so I saw him at close quarters at that vital time; ever afterwards he would call on me when a new threat developed. I am therefore privileged to tell you of some aspects of his actions and character as I saw them at the time, and as I have come to recall with an appreciation that has been enriched over the years by the treasures that I have since found in his books and speeches.
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