Tom Brokaw's "Their Finest Hour" on NBC
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August 13, 2012
In their lead up to the Olympics on Saturday, 11 August, NBC ran a special "Their Finest Hour," reprising what heroes the British were during the Blitz (which they were). But a commentator and author named Jon Meacham used the following terms in describing Sir Winston: "Failed politician...Not trusted by the Royal Family" He also trotted out a supposed quote by FDR in which he said, "Well, I suppose he's the best man England has, even if he is drunk half of the time." Is there even one small modicum of truth in this, or is it just the standard bashing of a great historical figure by a news network? I was incensed
--J.S., New York
Editor's response:
I thought it was superb, and I am usually the worst critic of these productions. The only thing they had wrong was where Churchill heard about Pearl Harbor—and removing "and its Commonwealth" from the Finest Hour speech.
I wouldn't hold that against Jon Meacham (whose book, Franklin and Winston, is a standard work). Churchill was, in 1939, a "failed politician" by most yardsticks (see Robert Rhodes James's Churchill: A Study in Failure 1900-1939). The Royal Family didn't trust him. Roosevelt did think and say he was "drunk half the time." His private secretary John Colville, who came over from Chamberlain, wrote on May 13th 1940: "I spent the day in a bright blue new suit from the Fifty-Shilling Tailors, cheap and sensational looking, which I felt was appropriate to the new Government."
In short order they all learned differently. Jon Meacham himself says at the end, "If it hadn't been for Churchill we would be living in a different and worse world."
Of course we all know this already--but Tom Brokaw made it possible for many more people to know.
Richard M. Langworth
Editor, Finest Hour
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Last Updated on Sunday, 16 September 2012 22:15 |
