The Miami “Heat” won another game of professional basketball tonight in the Beautiful City, 116-113 over New Jersey.
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Grounded on a Pyramid
Look at the structure of that. A pyramid: the most stable structure that there is.
For Roosevelt was by then a very sick, lonely man. He knew he was going. Everyone around him could see he was going. He went very fast; that man went downhill very fast. Churchill saw it. He described FDR as a specter with a far away look in his eye. The photographs are wincing to view.
He was wan, drawn, and had lost a shocking amount of weight.
Literally, FDR was wasting away. He was so weak that a week before his death General Marshall had to draft the reply for him to a contemptible telegram from Stalin. Churchill, still vigorous and acutely sharp mentally, saw Roosevelt's words only in the last sentence.
Frankly, I cannot avoid a feeling of bitter resentment toward your informers, whoever they are, for such vile misrepresentations of my actions or those of my trusted subordinates.
Churchill: "I was deeply struck by this last sentence, which I print in italics. I felt that although Mr. Roosevelt did not draft the whole message he might well have added this final stroke himself. It looked like an addition or summing up, and it seemed like Roosevelt himself in anger."
Churchill would know. Although Churchill lived, actually lived, in the White House for a period, he taxed FDR's patience and drained his strength. "The Winston hours," when Churchill would at all hours walk into Roosevelt's bedroom and wake him. Understandable, that. Churchill could talk until the cows came home. But there were things that Churchill did not understand. Operation Anvil, later Torch, was an American plan foisted unwanted on Churchill, who did not understand. He drafted but never sent a long (Churchill did not write other than long) telegram to Hopkins, wondering "what was behind it." What was behind it was Joint Chiefs of Staff steadfastness that American boys were not going to die for goddamned British imperialism--in the Middle East or India or anywhere. For Russian imperialism, yes! But at British imperialism we draw the line.
On India, Roosevelt dismissed Churchill's wish to hold the Crown Jewel in the Empire with "Old Winston." And Churchill was Old on colonial matters. He disparaged Ghandi as "that little half-naked man." But Roosevelt was all in all Uncle Joe's re-enslavement of Poland--Which, did Roosevelt forget?--was the cause of Britain's belated entry into the war with Germany under Neville Chamberlain, and the enslavement of all of Eastern Europe. That's bullshit right there. Americans had a selective bug up their asses over colonialism, the bug only bit the British. What. The. Fuck.
Churchill would know. Although Churchill lived, actually lived, in the White House for a period, he taxed FDR's patience and drained his strength. "The Winston hours," when Churchill would at all hours walk into Roosevelt's bedroom and wake him. Understandable, that. Churchill could talk until the cows came home. But there were things that Churchill did not understand. Operation Anvil, later Torch, was an American plan foisted unwanted on Churchill, who did not understand. He drafted but never sent a long (Churchill did not write other than long) telegram to Hopkins, wondering "what was behind it." What was behind it was Joint Chiefs of Staff steadfastness that American boys were not going to die for goddamned British imperialism--in the Middle East or India or anywhere. For Russian imperialism, yes! But at British imperialism we draw the line.
On India, Roosevelt dismissed Churchill's wish to hold the Crown Jewel in the Empire with "Old Winston." And Churchill was Old on colonial matters. He disparaged Ghandi as "that little half-naked man." But Roosevelt was all in all Uncle Joe's re-enslavement of Poland--Which, did Roosevelt forget?--was the cause of Britain's belated entry into the war with Germany under Neville Chamberlain, and the enslavement of all of Eastern Europe. That's bullshit right there. Americans had a selective bug up their asses over colonialism, the bug only bit the British. What. The. Fuck.
There was the American protective fixation toward China, which Churchill always thought weird. China? (Anytime an American becomes fixated on China it is considered by others to be "weird.") Churchill never understood it. China would pop up in American attitudes always surprising Churchill. Churchill blew off Madame Chiang Kai-shek one time when she requested he come to New York to meet her. (?) Which was weird.
The FDR-Churchill relationship was certainly more special to Churchill than it was to Roosevelt. I read in Martin Gilbert's biography that Churchill had a distant relationship with a cold father who Churchill was, all of his life, trying to please. Distant, cold, trying to please: yeah, I'd say that was FDR and what Churchill was doing. He showered genuine love on Roosevelt. I have reprinted this previously and this has always been among the most painful photographs I have ever seen, the most painful to me even with those others of Roosevelt dying in this post. Okay, once more:
The FDR-Churchill relationship was certainly more special to Churchill than it was to Roosevelt. I read in Martin Gilbert's biography that Churchill had a distant relationship with a cold father who Churchill was, all of his life, trying to please. Distant, cold, trying to please: yeah, I'd say that was FDR and what Churchill was doing. He showered genuine love on Roosevelt. I have reprinted this previously and this has always been among the most painful photographs I have ever seen, the most painful to me even with those others of Roosevelt dying in this post. Okay, once more:
Churchill worshiping FDR. He worshiped FDR as his distant, cold father who he was trying to please.
Roosevelt's slights, like those of his father, Churchill ignored. You could not indict Franklin Roosevelt in Winston Churchill's mind. He would not tolerate it.
There was the effusive, worshipful congratulatory telegram Churchill sent FDR on his 1936 reelection. Which Roosevelt did not answer. Which Churchill resent after the 1940 reelection. Which Roosevelt did not answer. I was going to write, "ignored but not forgotten." But with those 1936 and 1940 telegrams Churchill, wrote in 1953, "Curiously, I never received a response." Dude...
There was the Tehran Conference, late November 1943, dominated by Stalin.
Churchill depressed, his star eclipsed at Tehran. Look at the body language: Stalin sitting on top of the world, proudly erect. Roosevelt poised and confident, tilting toward Stalin. Churchill slumped and dazed.
Roosevelt did not care about Churchill or anyone else. Churchill had ignored Roosevelt when the two were at the same function during the First World War, "He was a real stinker!" said Roosevelt in Bush-speak to Joe Kennedy. They held facially similar positions in their government at the time, Churchill as Lord of the Admiralty, FDR as Secretary of the Navy (those are not really comparable in responsibility). Churchill had no memory of meeting or not meeting or ignoring Roosevelt. Roosevelt did have a memory.
I was going to write "ignored but not forgotten" because to me, I mean, come on, to anyone, does anyone truly believe that Winston Churchill missed FDR's funeral because,
...it is impossible now for me to change my plans, which were approved by the King and the Cabinet this morning, and upon which all arrangements have been made for the conduct of the debates in Parliament next week, including my tribute to the late President on Tuesday, and my attendance upon the King at the memorial service to he held in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Not Churchill's finest hour. You cannot convince me; you cannot come close: that was the accumulation of a decade of slights, inconsideration, and being used that floated to the surface like turds once Roosevelt was gone.
No, FDR's death was the end of the special relationship between the Prime Minister and the President and between the two nations. Churchill had proposed, in general form to be sure, but had proposed some form of joint citizenship between the two countries, free travel as within one state, even voting privileges! Henry Wallace thought that "interesting" but unconvincing since he didn't want the two Anglo-American powers to be viewed as dictating to the world and--yes, ganging up on their mutual great friend, the Soviet Union.
In the undersigned's reading of Churchill's The Second World War there is an abrupt change in tone between Churchill and Truman from that of Churchill and Roosevelt. Any reasonable person would see the same. There was not the effort made by Churchill to get the band back together again with Truman. And there was not by Truman! The new normal was crystallized in telegrams between Churchill and Truman in mid-May 1945. On the eleventh Churchill proposed a joint Anglo-American invitation to Stalin to what became the Potsdam Conference:
We should not rendezvous at any place within the present Russian military Zone. Twice running we have come to meet him. They are concerned about us on account of our civilisation...
Churchill also wanted a separate visit to Britain by Truman (Churchill was gearing up for a General Election).
Churchill summarized Truman's reply:
Mr. Truman then declared that he and I ought to go to the meeting separately, so as to avoid any suspicion of 'ganging up.' When the conference ended he hoped to visit England if his duties in America permitted.
I did not fail to notice the difference of view...
There follows a Churchill telegram on May 13 that conveys his child-like hurt:
F.D.R. promised me he would visit England before he went to France...We should feel disappointed if you did not come to us. But...
Ce la vie. Churchill was forever disappointed in father figures.
Truman went further at Potsdam in conceding to Uncle Joe what he wanted. The Americans, the prevalent opinion in the administration was, was to serve as mediator between our two truculent allies Great Britain and the Soviet Union lately the ally of Nazi Germany until they were invaded by Uncle Adolph at which point Uncle Joe began crying and then demanding HELP!! from their former enemies, then their allies, now their enemies and useful fools for enslaving Eastern Europe just as Uncle Adolph had lately done did. In a few short years of course, once the Americans had taken their blinders off and saw that no Russians for Democratic Action cells had sprouted, and continuing for a couple of decades, it was Great Britain who often had to stand as mediator between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to keep both and the world from being vaporized in a thermonuclear fireball. Churchill used his "iron curtain" metaphor twice before he used it publicly in a speech in Missouri, once, if I recall correctly in a minute to a member of his government, and once in a May, 1945 telegram to Truman. Where Churchill saw, completely accurately, of course, completely accurately, an iron curtain descending over Europe Truman and the Americans saw like a beaded curtain or something.
Churchill, when he finally met Truman, tried to turn it on again full blast. "I love America, I have always loved America, I am part Amer..." "That's fine Mr. Prime Minister, that will do": Truman. "It was wounding" said a British official who witnessed it.
Relations were no more special in post-war administrations in both countries. Eisenhower stopped Eden's attempt at Suez to keep Egypt in the British Empire. The Americans were understandably, completely understandably apoplectic about the Cambridge Five spy scandals that had reached the very top of MI5 and the very top of the CIA. And Prime Minister Macmillan whitewashed it. You can't recover from that, can you ever recover from that? At a time when the Cold War was threatening to blow hotter than hot MI5 had been passing along nuclear and other secrets to the Soviet Union (who had ceased to be in favor in D.C.)? No, you cannot. JFK didn't think there was anything special about the British; he thought there was something special about the Irish, which is not the same thing. Reagan invaded Grenada not realizing it was British territory. "Margaret, I am so sorry."
There was Biden’s plagiarism of Neil Kinnock, there was Bush and Blair! But Obama-Cameron, nah. Trump-anybody, nah-ah.
There should be a special relationship between Britain and the U.S. but we're insane and they're not and that's been an obstacle to specialness.
I have been up and runnin' on four hours sleep all day and it is long time I said good night. Good night.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Man, the World War II Allies were mis-named. Is there le mot just for “three scorpions in a bottle”? From re-reading even perpetually sunny Churchill’s account they got along better when they were losing than when victory was in sight. The U.S. and Soviet Union stayed out and watched all of Europe become Nazi. Britain would have too if Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor hadn’t occurred. Uncle Adolph and Hirohito—What were they fucking thinking?—birthed the three-headed mutant. Churchill’s resentment at the Soviets for the Non-Aggression Pact is palpable in The Second World War and of course completely with cause. Then to have Uncle Joe cry crocodile tears that Britain wasn’t aiding him enough. Churchill goes to great pains to write and attempt to demonstrate that he gave as much aid as he could but in my readings over the years of his volumes I have never been convinced. Stalin’s harshest words were reserved for Churchill and Great Britain. Stalin and FDR were closer—which is unforgivable. No, no moral crusade was this. The three were thrown in the bottle together of necessity. Was it necessity?
War seems to require post-mortem “What if’s?” So: Churchill immediately made league with the Soviet Union on Barbarossa. Immediately. That would not have been Uncle Ben’s immediate instinct, hooo doggie. Why was that necessary? I have never been convinced.
What if?: With an Eastern Front opened could Britain have ultimately defeated a distracted Hitler? I don’t remember Churchill specifically writing on that. He did not see Barbarossa as God’s gift Britain as he did Pearl. Barbarossa opened up a second front for Churchill too. Why didn’t Churchill demand Stalin aid Britain in return for Britain aiding Stalin? That one’s easier to answer but is it sufficient answer? Stalin could not. He was fighting for his life. Stalin had nothing to spare. Britain had at least survived the blitz. Could Britain spare materiel? Sheesh. Churchill writes that if Goering hadn’t inexplicably re-directed the Luftwaffe Britain was about on its knees. He writes that if Dönitz hadn’t inexplicably cut back on the Atlantic U-boat war Britain would likely have been sunk too. Britain had nothing to spare either. Why then did Churchill spare it?
War seems to require post-mortem “What if’s?” So: Churchill immediately made league with the Soviet Union on Barbarossa. Immediately. That would not have been Uncle Ben’s immediate instinct, hooo doggie. Why was that necessary? I have never been convinced.
What if?: With an Eastern Front opened could Britain have ultimately defeated a distracted Hitler? I don’t remember Churchill specifically writing on that. He did not see Barbarossa as God’s gift Britain as he did Pearl. Barbarossa opened up a second front for Churchill too. Why didn’t Churchill demand Stalin aid Britain in return for Britain aiding Stalin? That one’s easier to answer but is it sufficient answer? Stalin could not. He was fighting for his life. Stalin had nothing to spare. Britain had at least survived the blitz. Could Britain spare materiel? Sheesh. Churchill writes that if Goering hadn’t inexplicably re-directed the Luftwaffe Britain was about on its knees. He writes that if Dönitz hadn’t inexplicably cut back on the Atlantic U-boat war Britain would likely have been sunk too. Britain had nothing to spare either. Why then did Churchill spare it?
The greatest “what if?” of course is what if Barbarossa had occurred and Pearl not? Would Roosevelt have stayed out? He certainly would have. He did! FDR didn’t enter the war until Japan and Nazi Germany declared war on the U.S. Why then was there necessity for an alliance at all? You, Britain, fight Hitler on your front. You, Stalin, fight Hitler on your front. We, the U.S., will fight Hitler alongside Britain on the common eastern front but you two hail fellows well-met can take care of Hits pretty much on your own, can’t you? We Amerks will take care of our main front, the Pacific against Japan.
Why did Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor make necessary a three-party alliance? Couldn’t Churchill and Roosevelt have fiddled while Berlin and Moscow burned as Stalin fiddled while London burned? Why didn't the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact moot any consideration of the Soviets as ally in the fight against Hitler? Stalin could not believe his luck, literally could not believe it; accused Churchill and Roosevelt of working a secret separate peace with Hitler in 1944; thought, "That's what I did! Why wouldn't they do the same thing to me?" Stalin's double-dealing instead was rewarded by Churchill and Roosevelt--Stalin got the "secret codicil" of the Non-Aggression Pact from Churchill and Roosevelt! Triumph and Tragedy is title for Churchill’s sixth volume. The tragedy was Soviet re-enslavement of eastern Europe, condoned by the Allies at Yalta, and the Cold War. No alliance, no Triumph and Tragedy. The Soviet Union was the biggest victor of World War II. They supplanted Britain as a Great Power. That was a tragedy.
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