journal of the churchill center and societies - Winston Churchill

FROM BRITISH CASSANDRA
TO AMERICAN HERO
The Churchill Legend in the World War II American Medi la
JONATHAN SIKORSKY
Amessenger of disaster and misfortune in Greek
mythology was Cassandra, lovely maiden daughter
of King Priam of Troy. The god Apollo offered
Cassandra the gift of prophecy in exchange for favors
commonly asked of beautiful young women. She gladly
accepted Apollo's gift, but slyly reneged on her part of the
bargain. Frustrated and angry, Apollo sought revenge by
ensuring that none followed her prophetic advice. Cassandra
predicted the disastrous Trojan War, but her desperate
attempts to warn her father proved futile. After the fall of
Troy, the mythical Cassandra was captured and carried to
Greece, where she faded into obscurity... until she was
reincarnated in the 1930s as Winston Churchill.
Churchill was seen as a modern Cassandra who
foretold a disastrous war started by Adolf Hitler. The outbreak
of war in 1939 seemed to vindicate Churchill. Likewise
vindicated were his suspicions of the Soviet Union, in
light of the Stalin-Hitler non-aggression pact, his assessments
of Nazi intentions and renewed German militarism,
his criticisms of Neville Chamberlain's Munich
agreement, and his vision of Britain as a global force for
democracy and human progress. 1 The day Churchill became
Prime Minister in 1940, a U.S. radio reporter in
London commented that he had voiced "unheeded warnings"
and that "he enters office with the tremendous advantage
of being the man who was right." 2
The U.S. media delighted in telling stories of
Churchill's predictive powers and embellished his prophecies.
In March 1941, The New York Times Magazine ran
"An Amazing Prophecy by Winston Churchill," excerpts
from speeches that Churchill had made in 1936, as Germany
remilitarized the Rhineland. Churchill was portrayed
as the one voice that had foretold events. As with
Cassandra, Churchill's prophecy was ignored. 3 But one
important difference between Cassandra and Churchill
Mr. Sikorsky (ajsbns@aol.com) is a doctoral student in Chandler, Arizona.
This article is abridged from the first chapter of his dissertation.
was noted by the
media. Unlike the
old Greek myth,
Churchill's advice was finally
accepted, averting the fall of Britain and
the collapse of European democracy. Then, in the
global war which developed, Churchill was transformed
into an international hero.
Part of Churchill's prophetic image in the United
States was founded upon his numerous articles for Collier's
in the 1930s. Since the start of the Spanish Civil War in
1936, Churchill had argued that Nazis and Communists
were bent on dividing the world between them. In articles
designed to arouse public concern with world events,
Churchill stressed Anglo-American ties and insisted that
free nations could not survive in a world dominated by
dictators. Three months before World War II he made a
hopeful, if not desperate, plea in predicting that the
American people would be so repulsed by Nazi aggression
that the "New World would come storming to the rescue
of the Old." In the autumn of 1940, what seemed most
prophetic to the editors of Collier's were Churchill's articles
that challenged the ability of air power to terrorize
civilians and subjugate nations. Collier's reminded its readers
that, only months before the Blitz, Churchill had proclaimed
that air assaults on civilian populations were
criminal acts that would lead the perpetrators to their own
demise. 4 As the British people rallied round Churchill's
defiance of Nazi air attacks, Collier's admired how the
Royal Air Force had proved Churchill correct.
When war abruptly halted Churchill's writing,
the radio became the primary medium by which he communicated
with the public. Beginning with the Battle of
Britain, the BBC beamed Churchill's messages directly to
the United States. The text of each broadcast was typically
reprinted in major U.S. newspapers and magazines, which
allowed commentators to put his words in context for
American audiences. Churchill's speeches were considered
FINEST HOUR IOS/30