Is it true? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2826980/Winston-Churchill-s-bid-nuke-Russia-win-Cold-War-uncovered-secret-FBI-files.html
Dave Turrell is right. It is true in that Churchill made such a suggestion several times in private conversation in 1946-47. It is not true that he "bid" to "nuke" Russia. *Really....* The *Daily Mail* came to me with this "discovery" over a month ago. See: http://richardlangworth.com/nukesoviets I said Churchill often voiced apocalyptic or off-the-wall notions to visitors or staff so as to see their reaction. It has been known for 50 years that one of these was the Americans nuking the Soviets before Stalin could get the bomb. But this is NOT news. Lord Moran mentioned it in his "diaries" in 1966. Thomas Maier's book, *The Churchills and the Kennedys*, merely confirms Churchill's remark through another source. I thought then that Maier just dispassionately reported the incident—but that was before I read his book, in which I now see (among an amazing number of basic factual errors and schoolboy howlers) the baldfaced assertion: "Little did they [WSC's son Randolph and Russian officlas] know his father would drop the bomb if he could." (456) Baloney. Churchill never made such a proposal to any plenary authority, officially or otherwise. Indeed, as Graham Farmelo wrote in *Churchill's Bomb:* "This was the zenith of Churchill’s nuclear bellicosity. He soon softened his line. In the House of Commons he went no further than the words he used after British relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated again, in January 1948: the best chance of avoiding war was 'to bring matters to a head with the Soviet Government…to arrive at a lasting settlement.'" (Only six months after the remark reported by Mr. Maier.) Another quote I gave the Mail which they didn't bother to use was from William Manchester: "Churchill, however, always had second and third thoughts, and they usually improved as he went along. It was part of his pattern of response to any political issue that while his early reactions were often emotional, and even unworthy of him, they were usually succeeded by reason and generosity." The facts never suit the populist press, so the *Daily Mail* ran the accusation anyway....which was properly greeted, so far as I can tell, by a chorus of deserved zzzz's. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
