Friday - August 21, 2009

“Of course we can beat them. I shall drag the United States in.” Churchill, 1940

Well heck. Seems to be my day for living in the past.

Actually, the Mail has been running a series on Churchill from a Max Hastings book and it is really very interesting.
For example, I knew many Brits were somewhat envious of the ‘Yanks’ once the war started and they (Yanks) were, “Over Here.”
I knew many a poor Tommy was jealous too coz many a Yankee was seen as horning in on his territory re. the ladies. I guess that sort of thing was normal.  With Americans making so much more money compared to the Brit serviceman, and being able to afford so much, I guess it’s just human nature after all. That plus throw in real Nylons and hey.  In like Flynn, as the saying later went.

Ah, but what I’d never realized before today was, these folks didn’t much like us anyway. Even if the many didn’t even know us except through Hollywood, they sure as hell loved our movies.  There was a thread of dislike. A thin one to be certain, but it was there nonetheless.  And it got worse later, perhaps with good reason. 

Privately Churchill called them ‘bloody Yankees’ - but with a lover’s ardour he fawned, flattered and flirted to woo the U.S.

By Max Hastings
Last updated at 8:54 AM on 20th August 2009

Next month sees the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. It was a conflict that Britain could not have won without one man - Winston Churchill.

And it was his inspiration that prevented us from joining the rest of Europe in surrendering to Hitler. To mark the occasion, the Mail is publishing a major two-week series by the distinguished war historian Max Hastings.

Today, in part four, he tells how Churchill realised Britain’s only chance of beating Nazi Germany lay in persuading the United States to join the war.

Winston Churchill was standing in front of the washbasin in his bedroom and shaving with his old-fashioned Valet razor when his son Randolph burst in.

Churchill had been prime minister for a week, taking over in a crisis as German troops were on the march, scything through Belgium and France and heading for the Channel ports.

I shall drag the United States in.

Randolph sat and waited. Later, he described what happened next. ‘After two or three minutes of hacking away at his face, he half-turned and said: “I think I see my way through.” He resumed his shaving.

I was astounded, and said: “Do you mean that we can avoid defeat?” (which seemed credible) “or beat the bastards?” (which seemed incredible). He flung his razor into the basin, swung around and said with great intensity: “Of course we can beat them. I shall drag the United States in.“‘

Here was a characteristic Churchillian flash of revelation, and all the more brilliant because it came in 1940, when the fighting had barely begun and the prospect of the U.S. joining in was remote.

A poll at the time showed Americans were opposed to participation in the European conflict by an overwhelming 13 to one. The Senate rejected a proposal to sell ships and planes to Britain and the attorney-general ruled such a sale illegal under the Neutrality Act.

In Britain, meanwhile, few people had anything but contempt for Americans for absenting themselves from the struggle against Hitler. ‘I have little faith in them,’ a Battle of Britain pilot wrote. ‘I suppose in God’s own time God’s own country will fight.’ But he wasn’t holding his breath.
Hitler

Bitterness and suspicion came from all levels of society. Lord Halifax, Britain’s ambassador in Washington, admitted in private that ‘I have never liked Americans.’ Many Tory MPs shared his distaste. One wrote: ‘They really are a strange and unpleasing people. It is a nuisance that we are so dependent on them.’

Even Churchill was heard to refer to ‘those bloody Yankees’.

Yet he perceived with a clarity that eluded most of his fellow countrymen that U.S. aid was the only thing that would make an Allied victory over Hitler possible. On its own, the best Britain could do was to avoid defeat. Not until the U.S. joined the war could winning be a realistic aspiration.

Thereafter, Churchill wooed, flattered, charmed and strong-armed the United States with consummate skill as he fought to persuade Americans to set aside their caricature view of Britain as a nation of stuffed-shirt sleepy-heads and to see her people instead as battling champions of freedom.

But it was a slow process, with numerous humiliations for Britain along the way. When the U.S. lifted its arms ban and agreed to supply Britain with guns, tanks and planes, it was on one strictly enforced condition - cash on delivery.

While America reaped huge profits from these arm sales, the British government exhausted every expedient to meet U.S. invoices. From Cape Town in South Africa, an American warship collected Britain’s last £50million in gold bullion.

During the Battle of Britain, the chancellor of the exchequer suggested calling in all the nation’s gold wedding rings and melting them down to pay the bills. Churchill vetoed such a drastic measure, unless it became necessary to make a parade of it to shame the Americans.

The underlying problem was a widespread American belief in British opulence, quite at odds with reality. The U.S. administration even demanded an audited account of Britain’s assets because it suspected Churchill was not being honest about resources. British ministers found the demand humiliating.

It was only when the last of Britain’s gold and foreign assets had been surrendered that the embattled nation began to receive direct aid from the U.S., through the ‘lend-lease’ scheme.

When the U.S. Congress agreed this in March 1941, Churchill’s relief was boundless. It ensured that, even though Britain’s cash was exhausted, shipments of weapons and supplies kept coming.

But the long-term price was high. Many British businesses in America were sold at fire-sale prices for whatever American rivals chose to pay.

Lend-lease’s conditions constraining British trade were so stringent that London had to plead with Washington to be allowed to buy Argentine meat, vital to feeding the British people. The governor of the Bank of England, Montagu Norman, wrote in March 1941 that ‘we are entirely in the hands of American “friends“‘.

Churchill pleaded with Roosevelt that, if Britain’s cash drain to the U.S. continued, then, though ‘victory was won with our blood and sweat, and civilisation saved, we should stand stripped to the bone’. Roosevelt ignored him. He gave not a thought to Britain’s post-war solvency.

Read the rest HERE

Posted by peiper     on 08/21/2009 at 11:59 AM   
Filed Under: • History • UK •  
• Comments (20) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner