Download - Winston Churchill

Let me preface my remarks with some thoughtsabout the Americans. They are friends. TheUnited States in its public and private giving,is the most generous nation in the whole of history,and perhaps the most idealistic in the causes ofhuman rights and freedom. Yet this generosity seems tobring about the perverse result that the U.S. isdenounced widely. I have often to remind my younglisteners that it was the U.S. which put Europe back onits feet when it was struggling to recover from thedevastation of World War II. Having served alongsideAmericans in wartime and after, I’ve found themamong the most helpful and brightest of colleaguesand friends. I feel constrained to put this on recordbecause my account of those distant wartime eventsmight seem to lean in a contrary direction. But toput a dark gloss on those historic events is far frommy intention.My first sight of any of the Big Three was, of course,of Winston Churchill, from the Public Gallery in theHouse of Commons a couple of years or so before theoutbreak of war. Out of office, Churchill was yet againcastigating his government’s and party’s appalling recordof failure to meet the Nazi rearmament threat. In myschoolboy ignorance I thought his gadfly antics weresimply letting his own side down. After that Churchillfaded from my mind until he became Prime Minister in1940. We had been at war for nine months. By theneven Oxford students began to take notice of his stirringspeeches on the wireless.Not many months after being posted from myartillery regiment to our military mission in Moscow in1943, its chief, General Martel, said I was to accompanyhim to Teheran at the end of November. There, with noprevious warning, I was ordered to interpret for theChiefs of Staff, General Sir Alan Brooke, AdmiralAndrew Cunningham and Air Marshal Sir Charles Portalat what turned out to be the first of the so-called “BigThree” conferences.Among the three heads of government, Churchillwas the eldest, celebrating his 69th birthday; he hadalready met Stalin and Roosevelt, the latter seven times.Stalin was five years younger, Roosevelt the youngest at61. Churchill was the only one of the three who hadexperience of commanding troops on the battlefield—did that make him a worse strategist than the other twoor a better one? By 1943, an outsider might think thatall the allies were working more or less closely towardsthe defeat of the enemy.As we now know from innumerable accounts, thiswas far from the reality. Aside from almost non-existentmilitary cooperation, we met with antagonism andobstruction from Soviet officialdom: spiteful, evenincomprehensible behaviour. Their closely censoredmedia were generally hostile at the failure of the Anglo-Americans to open a so-called “Second Front” inWestern Europe. They scoffed at our military operationsin the Middle East, Italy, the Atlantic, and our bombingoffensive, which did constitute, however limited, a second,third, fourth and fifth front. We were grateful forthe real Russian hospitality and friendliness of Sovietcitizens brave enough to talk to foreigners. In Moscow,our food and accommodation were on the level of theprivileged class, Communist Party officials: quite comfortable,thank you.TeheranChurchill and Roosevelt flew to Teheran fromCairo, where they had disagreed bitterly over strategicpriorities. Roosevelt had declined even to talk about acommon approach to Stalin. To add to his discomfort,the Prime Minister had a throat infection, losing hisgreatest weapon: his voice. He looked worried and irritableas he arrived at the British Legation. It was the secondtime I had seen him in my life. Yet just seeing him,we suddenly felt the code-word for the conference,“Eureka,” was well-chosen.As I gathered from bits of Chiefs of Staff conversations,the President was again refusing his lunch invitationor even to talk before they both met that awkwardcustomer, Stalin. Even if he was determined to beardStalin himself, why would Roosevelt not want the observationsof Churchill, who had already met and negotiatedwith the Soviet chief? The latter, meanwhile, made hisForeign Minister, Molotov, concoct a cock-and-bull storyof an assassination plot by enemy agents in Teheran. Itsuccessfully caused a not reluctant Roosevelt to movetwo-odd miles from the U.S. Legation into a buggedhouse in the grounds of the Soviet Embassy, just a stepacross a narrow road from the British Legation. [ThatFDR and Churchill knew they were being bugged is nowaccepted: see Warren Kimball, “Listening in on Rooseveltand Churchill,” FH 131: 20. –Ed.]Today, as we know from contemporary accounts,Roosevelt sought to ingratiate himself with Stalin bymocking his British ally. He did tell Churchill he wasgoing to make a few jokes at his expense, “just to putStalin at his ease.” During the conference sessions andsocial occasions, I observed FDR assuming a jocular airabout Churchill’s cigars and “imperialist” outlook.The plenary sessions at Teheran were held in theSoviet Embassy. The first seemed somewhat disorganized.The President had not wanted an agenda; he had“not come all these miles to discuss details.” Rooseveltlooked confident and pleased to be asked, as the onlyHead of State, to chair the sessions. Churchill, lightingup his cigar, looked fit, and at first seemed not undulyembarrassed by the fairly heated arguments between theAmericans and British over strategic priorities now >>FINEST HOUR 135 / 17