Churchill Defiant

Fighting On 1945–1955

Barbara Leaming

• Publisher: HarperPress
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9780007257904
• eBook ISBN:
  9780007416356
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: History

Winston Churchill rages against time and his own mortality, in conflict with friend and foe alike, in this tumultuous political drama of his last ten years of public life. Here is Churchill at his most outrageous, maddening and devious – but also at his most human, courageous, and defiant.

At the end of July 1945, Churchill was a defeated man – hurled from power by the British people after a war in which he had saved his country.

'Churchill Defiant' is the story of how, when it seemed impossible, Churchill fought his way back over the next six years to the centre of great events. In 1951, at last Prime Minister once more, he was ready to begin his dash to win 'the last prize I seek': the lasting peace that had eluded the world after Hitler's defeat.

But Churchill's battles were just beginning. He would have to wage war with both his closest colleagues and his most indispensable allies, the Americans, to get to where none of them wanted him to go: the negotiating table with the Soviets.

Barbara Leaming has written a gripping, fast-paced narrative of bare knuckle politics, of life and death decisions, of old grudges, and fresh blame. It is a compelling, vivid, and often deeply poignant portrait of the great man at a time when almost no one wanted him to remain on the public stage and when he was willing to do absolutely anything to stay there.

SOCURCE NOTES

I: You Will, but I Shall Not

p. 1		background on Churchill in Berlin and Potsdam: Lady Soames, Sir Nicholas Henderson, Lord Carrington, author interviews.
p. 1		British party had swelled: Sir Alexander Cadogan, The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, New York: Putnam’s, 1972, 17 July 1945.
p. 1		‘We have …’: WSC, 22 June 1941, quoted in New York Times, 23 June 1941.
p. 2		‘bloodthirsty guttersnipe’: Ibid.
p. 2		‘and every foot …’: Winston S. Churchill, Great Contemporaries, London: Thornton, Butterworth, 1937, p. 63.
p. 2		questioned the Russian soldier: The Times, 17 July 1945.
p. 2		followed the Russian soldier: Lord Moran, Diaries of Lord Moran, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966, 16 July 1945.
p. 3		‘I never think …’: Quoted in Diana Cooper, Autobiography, New York: Carroll & Graf, 1985, p. 668.
p. 3		‘last pull up …’: Violet Bonham Carter, Champion Redoubtable: The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1914–1944, ed. Mark Pottle, London: Orion, 1998, 1 August 1945.
p. 4		turning away in disgust: The Times, 17 July 1945.
p. 4		tested it first: Ibid.
p. 5		‘showdown’: Prime Minister Churchill to Anthony Eden, 4 May 1945, Foreign Relations of the United States: diplomatic papers: the Conference of Berlin (the Potsdam Conference), 1945, Washington: United States Printing Office, 1945, vol. 1.
p. 5		troubled by doubts: John Colville, The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004, 23 February 1945.
p. 5		Eisenhower mistake on Berlin: Sir Nicholas Henderson, Lord Carrington, author interviews.
p. 5		presses Eisenhower to take Berlin: Prime Minister to General Eisenhower, 31 March 1945, quoted in Winston Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985, p. 405.
p. 6		‘lost its former …’: Quoted in Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, p. 402.
p. 6		sat in silence: Moran, Diaries, 16 July 1945.
p. 6		saluting soldiers: Ibid.
p. 6		‘high as kites’: Sir Nicholas Henderson, author interview.
p. 7		‘Force and facts’: WSC to Anthony Eden, 1 April 1944, quoted in Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, vol. 7, Road to Victory, 1941–1945, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986, p. 725.
p. 7		‘how much we have’: Prime Minister Churchill to President Truman, 6 May 1945, FRUS: Conference of Berlin, vol. 1.
p. 8		Truman preferred to wait: President Truman to Prime Minister Churchill, 9 May 1945, ibid.
p. 8		confer first in London: Prime Minister Churchill to President Truman, 11 May 1945, ibid.
p. 8		‘ganging up’: President Truman to Prime Minister Churchill, 12 May 1945, ibid.
p. 8		‘iron curtain’: Prime Minister Churchill to President Truman, 12 May 1945, ibid.
p. 8		surely it was vital: Ibid.
p. 8		did not wish to put in writing: President Truman to Prime Minister Churchill, 22 May 1945, ibid.
p. 8		wanted to see Stalin first: Joseph Davies to President Truman, 12 June 1945, ibid.
p. 8		Churchill waxed indignant: Ibid.
p. 8		Davies blamed Churchill: Ibid.
p. 8		‘placed not only …’: Ibid.
p. 10		Stimson luncheon: Henry Stimson Diaries, 16 July 1945, Yale University Library.
p. 11		Stimson’s insistence: Ibid.
p. 11		‘We will feel …’: First Plenary Meeting, 17 July 1945, FRUS: Conference of Berlin, vol. 2.
p. 11		nervous about facing: Charles Bohlen, Witness to History, New York: Norton, 1973, p. 226.
p. 12		‘I don’t just …’: First Plenary Meeting, 17 July 1945, FRUS: Conference of Berlin, vol. 2.
p. 12		‘of all hues’: Cadogan, Diaries, 18 July 1945.
p. 12		grown so accustomed: Record of Private Talk between the Prime Minister and Generalissimo Stalin after the Plenary Session on 17 July 1945, at Potsdam, PREM 3/430/7, The National Archives, Public Record Office.
p. 13		the British ambassador: Archibald Clark Kerr Diaries, 16 August 1942 (Baron Inverchapel Papers), FO 800/300, PRO.
p. 13		build a relationship with Stalin: Lady Soames, author interview.
p. 14		‘physically rather oppressed’: Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy, p. 548.
p. 14		conversation at dinner: Record of Private Talk between the Prime Minister and Generalissimo Stalin at Dinner on 18 July 1945, at Potsdam, PREM 3/430/6.
p. 14		background on Church...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• CONTENTS
• I You Will, but I Shall Not Berlin, July 1945
• II Face Facts and Retire London, 1945
• III Sans Soucis et Sans Regrets Lake Como, September 1945
• IV Old Man in a Hurry London, October 1945
• V The Wet Hen St James’s Palace, 1946
• VI Winnie, Winnie, Go Away Miami Beach, Florida, 1946
• VII Imperious Caesar Southampton, England, 1946
• VIII Plots and Plotters Hyde Park Gate, 1947
• IX Before It Is Too Late Westminster Abbey, November 1947
• X The Dagger Is Pointed La Capponcina, Cap d’Ail, France, August 1949
• XI Another Glass of Your Excellent Champagne Venice, 1951
• XII White with the Bones of Englishmen London, October 1951
• XIII Naked Among Mine Enemies New York, January 1952
• XIV I Live Here, Don’t I? London, 1952
• XV If Nothing Can Be Arranged Jamaica, January 1953
• XVI The Abdication of Diocletian Buckingham Palace, 1953
• XVII I Have a Right to Be Heard! Bermuda, December 1953
• XVIII An Obstinate Pig Aboard the Queen Elizabeth, July 1954
• XIX The ‘R’ Word Westminster Hall, November 1954
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• SOURCE NOTES
• INDEX
• Copyright
• About the Publisher