What kind of a People do they think we are? - Winston Churchill

Institute, J. Willard Marriott, LaurenceGeller, former Pakistan Prime MinisterBenizir Bhutto, and the ExecutiveCommittee of The Churchill Center.Senator Cleland gave a particularlymoving impromptu address, testifyingto Sir Winston's continued relevance inthe 21st century and his deep personalinterest in the work of the Center. Weare most grateful to Mr. Pazzi for hisgenerosity.WashingtonALEXANDRIA, VA., AUGUST 5TH— The WashingtonSociety for Churchill held itssummer picnic/book seminar today atthe home of Susan and Dan Borinsky.It was well attended and members wereriveted by the theme (which five weekslater would prove prescient indeed):"Dealing with Disaster: Churchill andGallipoli." Suggested reading for thediscussion was the first two chapters ofRobert Rhodes James's 1970 book,Churchill: A Study in Failure.Guest speaker Dr. Jeffrey Wallinand program chairman Dr. Chris Harmontogether related the events leadingto this great World War I debacle. Chrisreviewed the beginning of the GreatWar, while Jeffrey described the difficultiesof the British plan and the politicaldecisions which brought about thefailures. Although Churchill was thoroughlyinvolved in some areas of planning,major disagreements left him aneasy target to blame. Success could havechanged the course of history.WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 15TH— Interest inthe Second World War continues tospawn more floods of new books. Today,at the Marvin Center Auditorium,George Washington University, theWashington Society for Churchill assembleda panel of experts to discussstrengths and weakness of the newscholarship, paying particular attentionto how, or whether, they address WinstonChurchill. The panel was impressive.Dr. Ronald Spector, GWU historian,is author of the widely-read Pacificwar history Eagle Against the Sun, andhis new At War At Sea, a 20th centurynaval history. Dr. Eliot Cohen, notedwriter and commentator on war andDATELINESpolitics, directs Strategic Studies forJohns Hopkins University in Washington,and formerly lectured on Sir Winstonat the Naval War College. Dr.David Jablonsky, a retired Army colonel,has been writing monographs and bookson Churchill while teaching at the U.S.Army War College in Pennsylvania. Dr.Williamson Murray, author of numerousWorld War II volumes, has just releasedthe acclaimed A War to be Won,co-written with a fellow historian. Dr.Murray spoke to the Washington Societyat a past event on the war diaries ofField Marshal Alanbrooke. W.S.C.board member Dr. Chris Harmon, whoteaches a Churchill course for MarineCorps officers, chaired the panel. Formore information on Washington areaactivities contact the W.S.C. director,Caroline Hartzler (Hartzlercr@aol.com),telephone (703) 503-9226.LondonSEPTEMBER 19TH— An interesting pair oflectures was held today at the CabinetWar Rooms under the aegis of BBCHistory Magazine. The first was by PiersBrendon, Fellow of Churchill College,Cambridge and until recently Keeper ofthe Churchill Archives Centre there. Hesaid that perceptions of Churchillchanged throughout his career becauseof its great length and its numerous upsand downs. He thought the official biographywas herculean and marvellous,but a chronicle rather than a biography,i.e. facts and not judgment; it was consistentlyuncritical and omitted somediscreditable and weird points. This hadled to revisionists like Rhodes Jamesand Cowling; but recent debunkinghad gone too far, e.g. Ponting, Roberts,Irving and Charmley. But the wormwas now turning and the revisionistswere being revised (e.g. Blake & Lewis).The second lecture was by DavidCannadine {FH 111:13, who said thatWSC had a bifurcated personality,"wonderful, yet impossible." He spokeabout Churchill's power as an oratorand said he was an artist with words,overcoming speech impediments, whichled to his sonorous phrases. WSC'sspeeches were crafted with immensecare and were fashioned in his ownFINEST HOUR 112/15ErratumIn your review of The ChurchillFactors {FH 110:43) you say that"Churchill quoted something to theeffect that when one is about to behanged, 'it concentrates the mindwonderfully.'" I do not know whenand where Churchill may have saidthis, but he would have been quotingSamuel Johnson. When referring tothe poor Dr. Dodds, awaiting executionin Newgate gaol, the great lexicographersaid: "Depend upon it, Sir,when a man knows he is to be hangedin a fortnight, it concentrates hismind wonderfully." Another Johnsonquote used often by Churchill was:"No man but a blockhead ever wrote,except for money."JIM LANCASTER, TURQUEVII.LE, FRANCEThank you for the correction.Churchill had a photographic memoryand often ran off his favorite quotes, notalways with attribution. Your secondSamuel Johnson admonition is referredto frequently by this writer—not, alas,with as much success as WSC. -Ed.style, with influence from Gibbon,Macaulay, Bourke Cockran and LordRandolph Churchill. He quoted fromSavrola (Chapter 10) about the effortand after-effect of speech-making. Healso quoted Herbert Samuel, who saidthat people often voted againstChurchill because he had no judgment,was too prone to believe his own verbosity,and was ill-suited to intimateparliamentary debate. Until 1940 he"failed to inspire trust." —PHCChicagoOAK BROOK, ILL., SEPTEMBER 14TH—Phil and Sue Larson invited ChicagoareaChurchillians to the WyndhamDrake Hotel here tonight for dinnerand remarks by David Druckman, alongtime contributor to Finest Hour, inveteratetraveler to Churchill hauntsworldwide. Much of the evening wasdevoted to reflections of the murderousattacks in New York, and whatChurchill had said in similar circumstances.Contact: parker-fox@msn.comor telephone (708) 352-6825. >»