June 23, 2015

Finest Hour 114, Spring 2002

Page 13

“Shave his head, pack a hundred or so extra pounds on him, pop a cigar in his mouth, trick him out in a waistcoat with a watch fob stretched across his substantial tummy and— voila!—you’ve turned George W. Bush into Winston Churchill.” (Thanks to David Stejkowski for passing us this cut from the March 28th Chicago Tribune) Belated recognition by the French occurred in the June 2000 issue of France’s Historia magazine, which spent thirty pages naming Churchill Statesman of the Century. The first article was by Francois Kersaudy, author of Churchill and de Gaulle (1981), entitled “A Monument of Contradictions.” Mike Campbell reports that it’s “a somewhat frustrating piece: one long list of Kersaudy’s ideas on how Churchill was full of contradictions. It’s also weirdly written: one long string of thoughts separated by semicolons. Ultimately positive, Kersaudy does use the ‘I-word’ (Iroquois) and I think there are at least a few questionable points raised.” Kersaudy concludes: “Under this mass of apparent contradictions, there exist numerous keys to Sir Winston Spencer Churchill. If they do not open all the doors, it’s because each man guards his part of the mystery. But, following step by step, since very young, the peripheries of this fabulous existence, is something that should enrich all of ours.” Okay, if you say so Repeat a lie often enough and gullible people will believe it. Thus Peter Carlson in the Washington Post Outlook of March 26th. Writing admiringly of The Atlantic Churchill attack by Christopher Hitchens (see next page), Carlson said Hitchens’s “revelation” that an actor delivered Churchill’s war speeches over the radio left him “slack-jawed.” Replying nastily to our own Chris Dunford, Carlson said he had “no vested interest in perpetrating [a myth] if it isn’t true.” So we wrote and referred him to “Leading Churchill Myths (2): An actor read Churchill’s wartime speeches over by wireless,'” by the late Sir Robert Rhodes James (FH 112:52-53): “If we told you the yarn about how Churchill caused the 1929 stock market crash, would you go slack-jawed again?” Mr. Carlson did not reply (surprised?)… .And you’ll love this one, from The Atlantic‘s website: “We (mistakenly) advertised in the April Atlantic that this Flashback would include two articles by Winston Churchill, written early in his career: ‘Modern Government and Christianity’ (January 1912) and ‘Naval Organization, American and British’ (August 1917)…. Further research turns up the fact that there was in fact another Winston Churchill, an American who lived from 1871-1947….” Sometimes you just gotta laugh!… Former U.S. presidential candidate Al Gore rallied his party faithful in Florida with a semi-quote from Churchill’s famous quote Never give in—never, never, never, never.” But Al added two “nevers” to his version. Maine Governor Angus King, at the launch of USS Winston S. Churchill, believed WSC’s seven words comprised the entire speech—will they ever get it right?… HBO’s presentation “The Gathering Storm: with Albert Finney as Churchill and Vanessa Redgrave as Clementine has had rave reviews—and will get one from us next issue. Don’t miss it!