FH115 Final.qxd - Winston Churchill

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Eminent Churchillians... Douglas Russell One of the longest-serving members of our Board of Governors, Iowa District Court Judge Douglas Russell typifies their manysided interests. Active for fifteen years, he has served as treasurer, and heads the CC Awards Committee. After recruiting a cadre of notable speakers, he assembled the first Churchill Center Speaker’s Bureau brochure, bringing knowledgeable and entertaining Churchill speakers to the attention of business, industry and associations. He is also author of The Orders, Decorations and Medals of Sir Winston Churchill, the only reference on the subject, published by ICS in 1990, and now to appear in a new edition (see FH 111). Born in Chicago in 1948, Douglas received a degree in Political Science from Grinnell College, Iowa, in 1971, and a J.D. degree from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1978. He served in the Army, 1971- 74. On a Fellowship in 1974-75, he spent a year of independent study and travel in Western Europe, focusing on new town planning in Finland and Great Britain. He first became aware of The Churchill Center when he read an article on Churchill’s books in British Heritage. He was soon in touch with the editor, who swamped him with assignments and proposed odd projects. In 1995, following V-E Day celebrations in London, Douglas Russell, Richard Langworth, and two other avid bicyclists set off to bicycle the coast of Latvia—for no other reason, as far as Doug was concerned, than because it was there. The idea was to commemorate the fight for freedom that continued in the Baltic long after V-E Day. Despite chilly temperatures and gale force winds they completed the 410-mile course in ten days, presented President Ulmanis with a Latvian edition of Churchill’s The Dream, were declared “heroes” of the town of Kandava, and debated officials about how much influence Churchill really had at Yalta. (FH 87:27). They still speak to each other in Latvian, reciting strings of town names which to the uninitiated sound like real conversation! While laboring on the new edition of his medals book, Russell has also been preparing a much larger opus. Shortly Brassey’s will publish his Lieutenant Churchill, 4th Hussars, a fresh account of Churchill’s military career, with new facts and obscure stories gleaned from years of research. Several CC meetings have already enjoyed his slide presentation on the same subject. Doug is married to Sue Feeney and shares a home with four stepchildren in Iowa City, Iowa. Larry Kryske On 24 January 1965, a 15-year-old high school student was listening to the radio in suburban Los Angeles when the 1 PM news announced the passing of Sir Winston Churchill. The boy experienced a perplexing sense of sadness: he did not really know much about the man, yet he thought he should. His quest for knowledge lasted far longer than he anticipated. The student has since served as a career naval officer, a private school administrator, and a professional speaker and seminar leader. He wrote and spoke about Churchill, took up oil painting largely through Churchill’s example, served on the Board of the International Churchill Society (1991-94), and entered a personal “Englishspeaking Union” with the wife he met at a Churchill conference. As a teenager, Larry scoured the used bookshops of Los Angeles, discovering Dawson’s Rare Book Store and Phillip Townsend Somerville, who was then also encouraging ICS founding president Dalton Newfield. Phillip was the nephew of Admiral Sir James Somerville, who had reluctantly ordered Royal Navy ships to open fire on the French warships off Oran in 1940. He helped Larry find several of his first Churchill books. In 1965, a first edition River War could be purchased for as little as $80—still too steep for the 15-year-old. But his collection grew, and soon surpassed the number of books by and about Churchill in local libraries. In 1986, after twenty-two years in the U.S. Navy as a “ship driver” and weapons specialist, he began his long Churchill association. At the 1987 Dallas Conference he met Naomi Gottlieb; they married two years later. In 1988, Larry was Toastmaster for the Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, hosting Alistair Cooke and Governor John Sununu. In 1996 Larry started Homeport Speaking & Seminars, a full-service executive development business (www.HomeportSpeaking.com). His most unique program is a painting keynote speech during which he completes a large oil painting to illustrate a motivational message. It is a visual synopsis of his business/self-help book, The Churchill Factors: Creating Your Finest Hour (reviewed in FH 110). His commanding performance keeps audiences riveted. It was especially well received at the recent Queen Mary student seminar (FH 114). Larry’s novel presentation helps to keep Churchill’s memory alive and inspires new generations to benefit from Churchill’s wisdom. , FINEST HOUR 115 / 40
Focusing on the Real Menace Abstracts by Chris Hanger Kaufman, Robert, “The Line In The Sand—What George Bush Learned from Winston Churchill,” Policy Review, Spring 1991: 36-43. With his decisive response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the first President Bush exhibited principles advocated by Winston Churchill. Like Churchill, he focused the national interest both from a moral and geopolitical standpoint, but also joined with allies, or “coalition partners” as they were called, whose governments were often less democratic than America’s. Bush’s chief aim was to define which country was the ultimate menace, then work toward building partnerships to neutralize that threat. Three earlier developments illustrate Churchill’s foreign policy: the successive threats of Imperial Germany, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and Cold War. In each case, Churchill’s vision has been vindicated. The late 19th century saw Germany as a menacing power bent on European domination and naval supremacy over England. By 1911, Churchill’s view of Germany had changed from that of a relatively innocuous country into a real threat to European peace. Churchill’s premise was that Britain could not tolerate a bellicose Germany because it would likely destabilize and subjugate British interests. Though Russia was more autocratic, Germany posed the more destabilizing threat to the region. When Hitler came to power, Churchill believed that events were still within the West’s ability to control. Churchill’s general approach was not ___________________________________ Chris Hanger was sadly lost to us last December (FH 113:8), and these are his last two abstracts. This column will henceforth be produced by David Freeman. INSIDE THE JOURNALS whether England needed to confront Germany, but when. He stated that the later the inevitable showdown, the higher the human and economic cost. When war ultimately came in September 1939, the loss of life and economic power was devastating to Britain. When Germany attacked Russia, Churchill continued to focus on Germany. Though Communism was repugnant to him, Churchill welcomed his Soviet ally. With American entry into the war, Churchill’s desire was to forge an even stronger American alliance in order to counterbalance Soviet expansionism, which he felt was sure to occur in the postwar world. In contrast to the Nazis, Churchill felt that the Soviets would be cautious, prudent and flexible in the long term. He supported the formation of NATO, the Marshall Plan, GATT, and the IMF to promote both economic and political stability in Western Europe. The lesson learned by the first President Bush was revealed when he quickly focused on the ultimate menace: Iraq. Though not on a par with Hitler, if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein had the capability and will to wreak havoc on his own people and on his neighbors. FINEST HOUR 115 / 41 MacGregor, David, “Former Naval Cheapskate: Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill and the Royal Navy, 1924-1929,” Armed Forces and Society 19:3, Spring 1993: 319-33. Winston Churchill was a staunch supporter of rearmament during the 1930s. However, during his tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer, his Naval budget recommendations were parsimonious, and arguably helped cause some of the shortfalls in Naval preparedness in the 1930s. Upon taking office, he canceled a large shipbuilding plan, scheduled no cruiser construction, and froze the fiveyear budget at £60 million per year. A modest construction proposed in 1926 was reduced or canceled when Labour took office in 1929. As a result, sixteen full-size cruisers envisioned in 1925 were cut to thirteen cruisers of different sizes; then Labour cut the number to nine. Churchill viewed his role in naval growth to one of deferring but not shelving building projects. However, the Fleet Air Arm and Singapore naval base fared even worse. Naval aircraft requests for eighty new planes in 1924- 30 were cut to sixteen. In 1924, four new aircraft carriers were proposed for 1926-36. Churchill and subsequent governments delayed construction of the “1926” carrier until 1935. Senior naval personnel were not keen on the role of air power in the Navy, so these delays was not entirely WSC’s doing. Development of the Singapore base was suspended by the 1924 Labour government but resumed under a less ambitious modified plan resulting in further deferrals, delays, and cuts by Churchill. Succeeding governments continued the cuts, which rendered the base barely serviceable by 1939 and unable adequately to defend itself when Japan attacked in 1941. Churchill’s Army and RAF budgetary reductions were less harsh than those of the larger naval budget. Churchill’s preference for air power seemed grounded in the belief that less expensive airplanes could at some point replace ships and thereby provide a more cost-effective solution to rising overall military expenditures. Other budgetary adjustments were necessary besides naval expenditures. Accounting sleight-of-hand techniques were also necessary to balance the budget. It became clearer why huge naval costs would be harder to justify when, for example in 1927, budget difficulties required an unpopular cut in unemployment benefits. With no real threat on the horizon, it seemed that naval cuts could be safely made. Churchill held British naval strength superior to both Japan and America. Churchill’s emphasis as Chancellor was the expansion of social programs, i.e., butter over guns, trusting to future governments to make changes as future needs required. However, given finite fiscal limits during his tenure, naval expenditures were generally replaced by social programs. ,
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