WWWCD?

When faced with difficult matters of foreign policy and national defense, SWLiP asks itself, "WWWCD?" ("What would Winston Churchill do?")

It is perhaps easy to view Churchill's staunch leadership through WWII as an inevitability; as a case of the right man being in the right place at the right time, etc. This is Churchill the Noble, the Invincible, given moral authority by his role as leader of an island nation that was Europe's last bulwark against the successful establishment of a Nazi empire throughout the Continent. Here he is a symbol of courage under fire, of a morally ascendant Great Britain defying an evil and militarily superior invader.

The irony is that, had history turned out as Churchill would have liked, this image of him never would have come to pass.

Churchill was a man who, before WWII, was often regarded by his contemporaries as something of a nut case. He warned of the emerging Nazi threat, and urged action to foreclose it, long before the political establishment awakened to Hitler's true ambitions (by which time France and Poland were occupied and bombs were falling on London). This was Churchill the Seething Right-wing Reactionary, Churchill the War-Monger, etc. This Churchill (which also impotently called on the West to confront Stalin before he became a nuclear threat) was not liked by his contemporaries, and SWLiP thinks it knows why.

The latter Churchill was disliked because he sought to force his contemporaries to face unpleasant facts, which were basically as follows: Hitler is an emerging threat; he has ambitions that are incompatible with the national security interests of Great Britain; we will have to fight him one day; better to fight him on our terms than wait to fight him on his terms.

Had Churchill's ideas for "pre-emption" against Hitler been timely put into effect, Europe probably would have never known the horrors of WWII. And without Hitler distracting the Western powers, Japan probably would never have felt emboldened to attack the United States. Thus, WWII would most likely have been limited to a regional conflict in Asia, involving China, Japan and Korea.

Many other factors of 20th century history would likely have been different, as well. The advent of nuclear weapons probably would have been post-poned, as would have the advents of rocket technology and jet airplanes. Poland's borders probably would not have changed, Stalin would have remained militarily irrelevant for the foreseeable future, and Eastern Europe might never have suffered the aftershock of Soviet occupation.

In other words, the world would have been a very different place had Churchill been listened to during the 1930s.

But how well would Churchill be remembered? Would history regard him kindly as the man who led a pre-emptive war against Germany? After all, Hitler's army was not fully mechanized until after the takeover of Czech industry in 1939 (it's easy to forget, but many of Hitler's soldiers marched into Prague on horseback). People might have asked, If this Hitler guy was such a threat, where were his weapons systems? Where were the tanks, the rockets, etc.?

Without having experienced the full brunt of Nazi brutality, perhaps history would have regarded Churchill as the brute, as the man who led an assault against a threat that never emerged. Because history would not have had a Churchill the Noble to remember, it would only recall Churchill the Reactionary.

The irony would have been lost on many.

Comments

[Captain Ed]

Excellent post -- I've linked back to it at my site. Churchill is one of my favorite historical figures, certainly for his bravery but also for his spectacular failures and revivals. I have no doubt about WWWCD -- Blair and Bush are running his playbook, and that is a comforting thought.

[Captn' JAK]

Good little piece....But I don't think Bush is running the playbook well enough. We are at war with an enemy that has made it's intentions crystal clear. Our President needs to quit with the domestic political correctness and Hit Hard here at home.The fifth column here knows how to expliot our freedom and we cannot allow this to happen. I for one am a proud card carrying anti-arab bigot!! And I'm keeping my guns.

[Jim]

I've been a Churchill admirer for nearly forty years, and enjoy reading about WWII as the developments there have shaped events all my life. Bush has been lucky to have an enemy as naive in foreign policy as Saddam. Churchill, trying his best to get the United States involved in the war on his side, was very lucky that Hitler was stupid enough to declare war on the United States four days after the Pearl Harbor attack, for had Hitler been a smart and astute strategic thinker, he would have offered his condolences to the United States for the dastardly attack, broke ranks with the Japanese and voided the Tripartite Pact, and offered to mediate a suitable peace with appropriate reparations, knowing that neither Japan nor the United States would have gone that route. The result would have been that the Congress would never have declared war on Germany, while the attacks in Mayaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong would have required the British Empire to declare war on Japan. The United States would have sent all its armed might west, to the Pacific theater of war, and the strategic supplies, weapons and support England would have needed would have dried up. Hitler would have been able to strangle England by a successful push in the Battle of the Atlantic (fewer supplies being shipped that direction in fewer ships, with far less escort protection [no U.S. escort contribution]) until Churchill, unbending man of principle that he was, was driven out of office as a man who would not accept "reasonable" exit startegies or "peace" (he was turned out of office shortly after V-E day, in any event). Hitler would have been able, after the British peace of late 1942, to turn all his military might to the Eastern Front. The United States congress would have taken the view of a "Pacific First" campaign, and would have concluded that Hitler and Stalin deserved each other. The United States, Roosevelt and Churchill were all blessed by Hitler's total lack of visuallizing the future. I guess he never played chess and thus never learned to think six moves ahead.

[eric]

Jim, an insightful posting..however I beleive Roosevelt would have rushed to
Stalins defense after a quick victory over Japan...say, supplying materiel overland
from Vladivostok in Eastern Siberia freeing
the Soviets to move on the Nazis.The second
act to this play would be Churchill coming back from exile in Canada in triumph with the implicit backing of the U.S.With the Nazis freezing in central Asia and STILL
without a decent navy, they would not have been able to stop a successful landing in Normandy...it would have slowed the war considerably, but the outcome wouldve been roughly the same..One need look at how many
of Roosevelts staff were closet socialists
Alger Hiss notwithstanding.This almost guarantees active American involvement on the side of Russia, dont you think?

[Charles]

As Churchill once said:

"Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness."

[Lyclistwisy]

Let me assure you that to us here at First National, you're not just a
number. Youre two numbers, a dash, three more numbers, another dash and
another number.
-- James Estes

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