Winston S. Churchill (1874-1965) was prime minister of Britain during the Second World War and again during the early 1950s. He was also the head of the British navy for a time during the First World War and at the beginning of the Second.
During most of the 1930s he repeatedly warned Britain about the danger of Hitler but no one would listen until it was too late. When war came, no one had any doubt about who should lead. And even though Britain did not win a single battle in the first two years of war, few in Britain or anywhere in the English-speaking world lost faith in him.
For a whole year, from the fall of France in June 1940 till Hitler attacked Russia in June 1941, Churchill stood alone against Hitler. His courage seemed bottomless.
Like Hitler:
- He was a racist and an imperialist: he thought his people (Anglo-Saxons in Churchill’s case) were by nature the best in the world and should rule the rest. He saw nothing wrong with wiping out the natives of North America.
- He had a very good sense of history and which way it was going, which put him at odds with the received wisdom of the day.
- He saw himself as becoming part of his country’s destiny, even in the 1920s when few took him seriously.
Churchill came from one of the 100 families which once ruled England. But, although he was born in a palace and never had to tie his own shoes, he received neither money nor title. He had to make his way in the world.
His parents thought he was not bright enough for Oxford or Cambridge, so they sent him to Sandhurst where he became a military officer. This might seem a bit strange since we think of him as a prime minister and a writer. At root, though, Churchill was a military man. As a boy he loved his toy soldiers and even as prime minister during the war he often dressed as if he were somehow in the navy.
He was a military officer in India and during the Boer War in South Africa. During that war he wrote for a London newspaper and made a daring escape across enemy land. He came home a hero. With that he was able to stand for parliament and win. Except for one short period, he was a Tory all his life.
In the First World War he was the head of the navy. He fell from grace after the defeat of Gallipolli, of which he was a mastermind. He left government and went to fight on the Western Front with the army.
Between the world wars he was a member of parliament and a best-selling author. He could write 1900 words a day.
During the war he was in his late sixties and rarely got out of bed before noon – yet wound up working 90 hours a week.
He lived long enough to see his beloved British Empire fall.
See also:
Even considering the times, Churchill was a proudly racist man.
“The unnatural and increasingly rapid growth of the feeble-minded and insane classes, coupled as it is with a steady restriction among all the thrifty, energetic and superior stocks, constitutes a national and race danger which it is impossible to exaggerate… I feel that the source from which the stream of madness is fed should be cut off and sealed up before another year has passed.” — Churchill to Asquith, 1910″
“I do not admit… that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia… by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race… has come in and taken its place.” — Churchill to Palestine Royal Commission, 1937
But on the other hand he was fiercely opposed to slavery and was evidently at least somewhat opposed to the beginnings of apartheid in South Africa
“We have reaped a rich harvest in this
dark season for having consistently
pursued a kindly and humane policy
towards the Bantu races and the
Boers have paid a heavy penalty for
their cruelty and harshness. “
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Wow, I did not know he believed in eugenics too.
He not only thought whites were better than other races, he also thought Anglo-Saxons were better than other whites. He would have felt right at home in the Klan – except that unlike the Klan he believed in the rule of law (even if he was a terrorist when it came to enemy states).
To him racism was just common sense, so he saw nothing wrong in it: it was not his fault he was born Anglo-Saxon.
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He is also famous for this quote/policy
“I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected”.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHU407A.html
which was subsequently used against Iraq in the 1920s.
“Our last occupation Gas, Chemicals, Bombs: Britain has used them all before in Iraq”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/apr/19/iraq.arts
He was voted as the greatest Briton of all time a few years ago in a nationwide poll.
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What’s the point of this post?
Is it news to you that Churchill, like every leading world figure, held some views that don’t sit well with today’s self-appointed moralists?
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Are you referring to me or Abagond here, or both of us??
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j,
The reference is mainly to you.
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Thanks,
It is because:
1. It is true
2. It is a discussion board
3. Not many people are aware of Churchill’s racism – so in this respect it is news, if Abagond’s comments are anything to go by
4. From a historical perspective it can show us connections between the present and the past
Hope this clarifies…
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500 words a day on whatever I want
^^^^^^^^^
What’s the point of this post?
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lol! 😉
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The only things he did wrong were fighting against the Boers and his complicity in the bombing of Dresden, the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe, the expulsion of the Eastern Germans.
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