After becoming Prime Minister on 10 May 1940, Winston Churchill (1874-1965) faced one of the greatest threats to civilization in world history - the prospect of Nazi domination on the Continent..
For years, Churchill had warned of his fellow Britons of Hitler's ultimate intention to create a Nazi empire. Few listened. After the Munich Conference of 1938, in which then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared 'Peace in our time', Hitler cleverly signed a non-aggression pact with Stalin and promptly invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. It was the official beginning of World War II for Europe.
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By the time Churchill sat down at his desk as Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street for the first time, the Nazi invasion of Holland, Belgium and France had been well underway. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was simply in no position to come to the rescue of Paris.
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What to do? Across the Atlantic, President Roosevelt had to temper his remarks on the catastrophic events in Europe. Although he personally considered Hitler a threat to the world rather than just Europe, Roosevelt was constrained by public opinion. After the grand intervention on behalf of the allies in 1918, Americans simply wanted no part in the new outbreak of hostilities. Hence, Churchill was to have no concrete assistance from Washington in the near term. Britain would have to stand alone as its neighbor across the English Channel succumbed to a massive Nazi assault. Tense cabinet meetings with the new cantankerous Prime Minister lied directly ahead.
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At a meeting of the British war ministers on 28 May, the idea of negotiating once again with Hitler was broached by Lord Halifax. Churchill had none of it. He understood that Hitler's diplomacy was nothing more than an empty ruse to weaken the resolve of his opponents through false promises. Had not Hitler already reneged on the Munich Agreement? Why trust him now? Churchill stiffened the resolve of the other ministers saying, 'Nations which went down fighting rose again, but those which surrendered tamely were finished.' By the end of the meeting, even Neville Chamberlain, now one of the war ministers with the title 'Lord President', sided with Churchill.
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Later on in the day, a full Cabinet meeting was held. According to the notes of Hugh Dalton, the Minister of Economic Warfare, the entire room was behind Churchill's gritty call to defend the island and eventually defeat Hitler and his menacing armies. From there, the British public rallied to the defense of the Empire, and the beginning of the end of Hitler's genocidal reign had begun. The democracies would not yield thousands of years of culture and human progress to a twisted, maniacal tyrant.
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A week later (4 June), Britain and the world heard one of the most soul-stirring orations in history. The pride of the English nation and the struggle for humanity was reaffirmed in Churchill's words:
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'We shall not flag or fail,
We shall go on to the end.
We shall fight in France,
We shall fight on the seas and oceans,
We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.
We shall fight on the beaches,
We shall fight on the landing grounds,
We shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
We shall fight in the hills,
We shall never surrender...
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The speech would go on, but the world had heard its clarion call to deliver Europe from its dark rule and choked back tears of determination at the cry, 'We shall never surrender.'
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After these lines, Churchill had become a legend. Today, his unflinching resolve must be our unflinching resolve to stay afloat in dreadful economic times and achieve meaningful reform in our governments and in our worldwide economy to bring an end to poverty and homelessness.
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In our quest to achieve economic and social justice to every man, woman and child on planet earth, we also - despite the sometimes seemingly hopeless odds - must never surrender.
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(Picture - Churchill in 1940)
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J Roquen