June 11, 2015

Finest Hour 101, Winter 1998-99

Page 36

By Michael Richards

Churchill Proceedings 1994-1995, edited by Richard M. Langworth. Published by The Churchill Center, Washington, D.C. 144 pages, softbound, illustrated, $10 postpaid from Churchill Stores, PO Box 96, Contoocook NH 03229 USA

Winston Churchill, leading Time magazine’s poll for “Person of the Century,” is the most revised and reinterpreted figure in 20th Century history. The “Churchill myth”—which Sir Winston forthrightly promoted through his books and speeches as “my case”—has lately been broadly challenged, especially since the release of once-secret wartime documents in Britain, America, Russia and Germany.

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During 1994-95, Churchill was accused of wishing to sterilize mental incompetents, backing appeasement in the 1930s, promoting the use of poison gas in World War II, destroying the Empire, engineering the Pearl Harbor attack and the 1929 Wall Street crash, spying on the Soviet Union, and harboring “a lifelong antipathy toward coloured people.”

As Churchill once said in another context, “there is surely some happy ground between these scarecrow extremes.” And there is no need for irresponsible critics, when we have so many responsible ones—over thirty of whom contribute to Churchill Proceedings 1994-1995, published by The Churchill Center in Washington.

The book comprises speeches or papers at 1994-95 Churchill Center events by speakers including William F. Buckley, Jr.; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.; William Manchester; William Rusher; Roy Jenkins; a dozen scholars; and college students who delivered papers at Churchill Center conferences or seminars.

A non-profit educational organization, The Churchill Center is not averse to negative viewpoints. “On balance, naturally, our view of Churchill is positive,” says the editor, “but we try not to paper over Churchill’s faults. His best friend, Lord Birkenhead, once remarked, ‘When Winston is right he is superb. When he’s wrong, well, oh my God…'”

Among the debates in this volume is one between Larry Arnn of the Claremont Institute and Professor Warren Kimball of Rutgers. “Churchill was a British statesman whose goal was to advance the interests of Great Britain,” says Kimball. “Churchill was a British statesman whose goal was to advance liberty,” replies Arnn, who goes on to contrast British “interests” with those of the Soviet Union. Similar diversity is offered (between Kimball and Buckley) over Churchill’s professed trust of Stalin, and (between Arnn and Lord Jellicoe) over the value of Churchill’s Arctic convoys to Russia. Lord Jenkins, a onetime Labour foe, says there is no need to whitewash Churchill’s record: let it stand.

There are pieces here that reach back—David Stafford on Churchill and Secret Intelligence; Lord Jellicoe’s marvelous retrospective on Churchill and Jellicoe’s father, who commanded Britain’s Grand Fleet in World War I and about whom Churchill said, “He was the only man who could lose the war in an afternoon.” There are pieces that look forward—Arthur Schlesinger on how Churchill will survive revisionist history; Coach Johnny Parker on how he uses Churchill to inspire nothing less than the New England Patriots football team. There are intimate views of young Winston, by his granddaughter Celia Sandys; and the old, by his daughter Lady Soames. All in all, it’s a fine mix. Sir Winston, who was always in the thick of debate, would be delighted with it.