August 30, 2007

Winston Churchill's Uphill War

BY MICHAEL MINK

FOR INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Winston Churchill came to power with a clear idea of what it took give his country hope.

Churchill was 65 when he became prime minister in 1940, in England's darkest hour.

Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany were subjugating countries across Europe. A nightmarish German air attack, known as the Blitz, soon would descend on London.

With isolationists in the U.S. preventing President Franklin D. Roosevelt from fully coming to their aid, the British people had every reason to feel isolated and defeated. The odds seemed overwhelming against Britain's survival.

In addition to four decades of government experience and political savvy he brought to his new job, Churchill (1874-1965) put it upon himself to become Britain's voice and most visible symbol of defiance in the face of tyrannical aggression.

"I was not the lion," Churchill said. "I just supplied the roar."

In his first speech as prime minister to Parliament in May 1940, Churchill said, "You ask what is our policy? I will say, it is to wage war with all our might, with all the strength that God can give us, to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. You ask what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terror. Victory however long and hard the road may be. For without victory there is no survival."

Dunkirk, But Not Done

A month later, British troops were evacuated from Dunkirk on the coast of France, which had fallen to Germany. Churchill again addressed Parliament. He knew Britain was next up on Hitler's radar:

"We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."

American and war correspondent Edward R. Murrow said of Churchill: "The hour had come for him to mobilize the English language and send it into battle, a spearhead of hope for Britain and the world." He added that Churchillian prose "lifted the hearts of an island of people when they stood alone."

Churchill meticulously prepared for his speeches and recognized their importance. He sometimes sequestered himself for days writing and practicing them, says David Freeman, professor of modern British history at California State University, Fullerton.

Churchill, as quoted in "A King's Story" by Edward, duke of Windsor, said: "If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time."

His speeches helped make his case to Americans that to assist Britain was to protect themselves. The U.S. finally entered World War II after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

The Allied defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945 helped cement Churchill's place in the pantheon of the world leaders. The general consensus among British historians is that he is the greatest prime minister in his country's history.

Allen Packwood, director of the Churchill Archives Center in England, said the personal traits that made Churchill a great wartime leader were "his conviction that Britain, her Allies, empire and commonwealth, could triumph against daunting odds, and his ability to articulate that conviction through his great speeches and broadcasts."

He felt, just as he had as a courageous soldier and as a battalion leader of 800 men during World War I, that you must exude confidence, as with his V for victory signal, says Martin Gilbert, whose most recent books are "Churchill's War Leadership" and "Churchill and America."

Churchill's charge came after representing the British government's opposition in the 1930s. A member of Parliament, he especially found his voice upon Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's Munich pact of 1938 that let Hitler annex a chunk of Czechoslovakia.

"I will begin by saying what everybody would like to ignore or forget but which must nevertheless be stated, namely that we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat," Churchill said in Parliament. "(Hitler), instead of snatching the victuals from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course."

Hitler proved him right by devouring Prague the next year and then invading Poland. By May 1940, Chamberlain was out and Churchill in.

Some in his Cabinet said he should negotiate for peace. He rejected that. "An appeaser," Churchill said years later, "is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

Leo Amery, a Cabinet member, wrote in his diary of May 28, 1940, that the men were "tremendously heartened by Winston's resolution and grip of things. He is a real war leader and one whom it is worthwhile serving under."

Churchill's management style, says Gilbert, involved attention to detail while not engaging in micromanagement. He never asked more of others than of himself.

As prime minister, Churchill undertook "dangerous travel in order to participate in face-to-face diplomacy" with foreign leaders and his military staff, Packwood said.

Paul Addison, author of "Churchill: The Unexpected Hero," told IBD: "Churchill was authoritative . . . but not authoritarian. His military strategy was decided in consultation with the heads of the armed forces and although he often argued with them and put them under pressure he never overruled them."

Gilbert said: "Churchill was an extremely good listener. Because of his governmental experience, going back 35 years, he was accustomed to listening and probing experts. He wanted to draw on the widest possible range of expertise."

That came while putting in upward of 15-hour workdays during World War II. "Churchill put in long hours studying a subject. His favorite jingle was 'the heights achieved by men and kept were not achieved by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward through the night,' " Gilbert told IBD.

Hanging In There

Addison called Churchill the unexpected hero because "until the Second World War his two changes of party from Conservative to Liberal and back again, his egotism and his independence of spirit at all times led orthodox politicians to mistrust him and his judgment. Not until he was (in his mid-60s) did a crisis arise in which party politics were irrelevant and his greatest qualities could be demonstrated and recognized."

Gilbert, Packwood and Addison agree the great lesson from Churchill's life is his perseverance in the face of a career of political setbacks. "Again and again, people told him he was finished," Gilbert said.

That pluck helped Churchill fulfill his goal of service to society.

"What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?" Churchill said.