Kemper Lectures
If George III and Lord North had been more tactful, would the 13 colonies have revolted?
If the German General Staff had refused to let Lenin return to Petrograd in a sealed
train, would there have been a Bolshevik revolution in Russia? If Corporal
Hitler had been killed on the Western Front in World War I would there have been
another “Fuhrer” with a mesmeric hold on the German masses? The
Ifs of history are fascinating, especially when they relate to the influence of
individuals but they are food for fantasy and not for research. What does
deserve careful examination are the personal characteristics, the qualities and
defects, of those whose decisions did in historic fact mould our destinies; for
if the characteristics had been different, the decisions might have been different
too.
In his own country and abroad, Winston Churchill had a notable influence on people and on policies for many years, indeed for well over half a century. But it was for a much shorter period, of some 18 months, from May 1940 till America came into the war, that this influence was truly vital. Under his leadership, his country held the fate of western civilization in its hand, and it was Churchill’s energy, resolution, and example that provided the necessary inspiration. In those 18 months, Churchill and the British stood like King Leonidas and his Spartans in the pass at Thermophylae: they were the sole active opponents of overwhelming military might and of submission to slavery. The Soviet Union, until herself attacked in June 1941, was an ally of Hitler; the Government of the United States was as helpful as it could afford to be, but after the isolationist years, it was unprepared and disarmed. The European powers were either defeated or cowed into surrender. All this, I am sure you know well, but I think that heroic stories bear repetition.
Churchill did, indeed, have behind him a united and determined people and a vast Empire, almost as woefully unprepared for war as the United States, but nevertheless embracing a quarter of the world’s population and nearly a third of its territory. What seemed less impressive than the far-flung empire and the fervent goodwill of the United States, but was in the short-term more effective than either of them, was that narrow strip of sea called the English Channel. All the same, a British Government could quite easily, by bungling and miscalculation, or by faint-heartedness, have lost the battle for democracy and condemned us to see Hitler’s 1000 year Reich fill the heads – and destroy the souls – of men and women in every continent for generations to come.
In his own country and abroad, Winston Churchill had a notable influence on people and on policies for many years, indeed for well over half a century. But it was for a much shorter period, of some 18 months, from May 1940 till America came into the war, that this influence was truly vital. Under his leadership, his country held the fate of western civilization in its hand, and it was Churchill’s energy, resolution, and example that provided the necessary inspiration. In those 18 months, Churchill and the British stood like King Leonidas and his Spartans in the pass at Thermophylae: they were the sole active opponents of overwhelming military might and of submission to slavery. The Soviet Union, until herself attacked in June 1941, was an ally of Hitler; the Government of the United States was as helpful as it could afford to be, but after the isolationist years, it was unprepared and disarmed. The European powers were either defeated or cowed into surrender. All this, I am sure you know well, but I think that heroic stories bear repetition.
Churchill did, indeed, have behind him a united and determined people and a vast Empire, almost as woefully unprepared for war as the United States, but nevertheless embracing a quarter of the world’s population and nearly a third of its territory. What seemed less impressive than the far-flung empire and the fervent goodwill of the United States, but was in the short-term more effective than either of them, was that narrow strip of sea called the English Channel. All the same, a British Government could quite easily, by bungling and miscalculation, or by faint-heartedness, have lost the battle for democracy and condemned us to see Hitler’s 1000 year Reich fill the heads – and destroy the souls – of men and women in every continent for generations to come.