Later life of Winston Churchill

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Churchill making a speech in Uxbridge, Middlesex, during the 1945 general election, which his party lost Winston Churchill during the General Election Campaign in 1945 HU55965.jpg
Churchill making a speech in Uxbridge, Middlesex, during the 1945 general election, which his party lost

Winston Churchill's Conservative Party lost the July 1945 general election, forcing him to step down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. For six years he served as the Leader of the Opposition. During these years he continued to influence world affairs. In 1946 he gave his "Iron Curtain" speech which spoke of the expansionist policies of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Eastern Bloc; Churchill also argued strongly for British independence from the European Coal and Steel Community; he saw this as a Franco-German project and Britain still had an empire. In the General Election of 1951, Labour was defeated.

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Churchill became Prime Minister for a second time. He continued to lead Britain but was to suffer increasingly from health problems. Aware that he was slowing down both physically and mentally, he resigned in April 1955. He continued to sit as MP for Woodford until he retired from politics in 1964. Churchill died on 24 January 1965 and was granted the honour of a state funeral. He was buried in his family plot in St Martin's Church, Bladon, near to where he was born at Blenheim Palace.

Leader of the Opposition, 1945–1951

Churchill with American General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery at a meeting of NATO in October 1951, shortly before Churchill became Prime Minister for a second time Wc0279.jpg
Churchill with American General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery at a meeting of NATO in October 1951, shortly before Churchill became Prime Minister for a second time

Following his defeat in the 1945 general election, Churchill became the Leader of the Opposition.

Speech in Fulton, Missouri

In 1946, Churchill was in America for nearly three months from early January to late March. [1] It was on this trip that he gave his "Iron Curtain" speech about the USSR and its creation of the Eastern Bloc. [2] Speaking on 5 March 1946 in the company of President Truman at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Churchill declared: [3]

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere.

The essence of Churchill's view was that the Soviet Union did not want war with the western Allies but that its entrenched position in Eastern Europe had made it impossible for the three great powers to provide the world with a "triangular leadership". Churchill's desire was much closer collaboration between Britain and America, but he emphasised the need for co-operation within the framework of the United Nations Charter. [4] Within the same speech, he called for "a Special Relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States". [3]

In 1947, according to a memorandum from the FBI's archives, Churchill allegedly urged the US to conduct a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union in order to win the Cold War while they had the chance. He reportedly spoke to right-wing Republican senator Styles Bridges, asking him to persuade Truman to launch a strike against Moscow to destroy the Kremlin and make it easy to handle the directionless Russia. The memorandum claims Churchill "stated that the only salvation for the civilization of the world would be if the President of the United States would declare Russia to be imperiling world peace and attack Russia". Russia would have been defenseless against a nuclear strike at the time of the Churchill's proposal, since the Soviets did not obtain the atomic bomb until 1949. [5] Churchill's personal physician, Lord Moran, recalled that he had already advocated a nuclear strike against the Soviets during a conversation in 1946. [6] Later, Churchill was instrumental in giving France a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, providing another European power to counter-balance the Soviet Union's permanent seat. [7]

Europe

Churchill at the Congress of Europe in the Hague, 8 May 1948. Congres van Europa in de Ridderzaal. Overzicht, Bestanddeelnr 934-6838.jpg
Churchill at the Congress of Europe in the Hague, 8 May 1948.

Churchill was an early supporter of pan-Europeanism as, in the summer of 1930, he had written an article calling for a "United States of Europe", although it included the qualification that Britain must be "with Europe but not of it". [8] In a speech at the University of Zurich in 1946, he repeated this call and proposed creation of the Council of Europe. This would be centred around a Franco-German partnership, with Britain and the Commonwealth, and perhaps the United States of America, as "friends and sponsors of the new Europe". Churchill expressed similar sentiments during a meeting of the Primrose League at the Royal Albert Hall on 18 May 1947. He declared: "Let Europe arise", but he was "absolutely clear" that "we shall allow no wedge to be driven between Britain and the United States". In 1948, he participated in the Hague Congress, discussing the future structure and role of the Council, which was finally founded as the first pan-European institution through the Treaty of London on 5 May 1949. [9] [10]

In June 1950, Churchill was strongly critical of the Attlee government's failure to send British representatives to Paris to discuss the Schuman Plan for setting up the European Coal and Steel Community, saying that: "les absents ont toujours tort" ("the absent are always wrong"). [11] However, he still did not want Britain to actually join any federal grouping; nevertheless, he is listed today as one of the "Founding fathers of the European Union". [12] [13] After returning as Prime Minister, Churchill issued a note for the Cabinet on 29 November 1951 in which he listed Britain's foreign policy priorities as Commonwealth unity and consolidation, "fraternal association" of the English-speaking world (i.e., the Commonwealth and the US), and a "United Europe, to which we are a closely and specially-related ally and friend..... (it is) only when plans for uniting Europe take a federal form that we cannot take part, because we cannot subordinate ourselves or the control of British policy to federal authorities". [14]

Partition of India

Churchill continued to oppose the release of India from British control. In a speech to the House of Commons in early March 1947, he warned against handing power to an India government too soon because he believed the political parties in India did not truly represent the people, and that in a few years no trace of the new government would remain.[ citation needed ]

Ireland

It was during his opposition years that Churchill twice expounded his views on Ireland to successive Irish ambassadors in London. In November 1946, he met John Dulanty and told him: "I said a few words in parliament the other day about your country because I still hope for a united Ireland. You must get those fellows in the north in, though; you can't do it by force. There is not, and never was, any bitterness in my heart towards your country". [15] In May 1951, he met Dulanty's successor Frederick Boland and said: "You know I have had many invitations to visit Ulster but I have refused them all. I don't want to go there at all, I would much rather go to southern Ireland. Maybe I'll buy another horse with an entry in the Irish Derby". [15] Churchill had happy childhood memories of Ireland from his father's time there as private secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland from 1876 to 1880. [15]

The Second World War (book series)

In the late 1940s, Churchill wrote and published six volumes of World War II memoirs. The series is entitled The Second World War and added his personal thoughts, beliefs and experiences to the historical record as he interpreted it. Churchill traded the literary rights to his books in return for double the salary he made as Prime Minister. Major points in Churchill's books included his disgust in the handling of Hitler prior to the outbreak of war, primarily with the policy of appeasement which the British and French governments pursued until 1939.[ citation needed ]

Prime Minister: 1951–1955

  1. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 807.
  2. ↑ Harriman, Pamela (December 1987). "The True Meaning of the Iron Curtain Speech". International Churchill Society. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  3. 1 2 "The Sinews of Peace (the "Iron Curtain" speech)". International Churchill Society. 5 March 1946. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  4. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 810.
  5. ↑ Maier 2014, p. 412.
  6. ↑ Maier 2014, pp. 412–413.
  7. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 778.
  8. ↑ Rhodes James 1970, p. 220.
  9. ↑ Gilbert 1991, pp. 265–266, 321.
  10. ↑ Charmley 1995, pp. 246–249.
  11. ↑ Gilbert 1991, pp. 535–536.
  12. ↑ Johnson 2014, pp. 304, 306–310.
  13. ↑ Jenkins 2001, pp. 813–814.
  14. ↑ Charmley 1995, pp. 249, 298.
  15. 1 2 3 Collins, Stephen (17 November 2014). "Winston Churchill spoke of his hopes for a united Ireland". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  16. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 842.
  17. ↑ Gilbert 1991, p. 771.
  18. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 844.
  19. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 844–845.
  20. ↑ Gilmour, Ian (1977). Inside Right: A Study of Conservatism. London: Hutchinson. p. 134. ISBN   978-07-04332-38-6.
  21. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 858.
  22. ↑ Judd, Dennis (2012). George VI. London: I. B. Tauris. p. 260. ISBN   978-17-80760-71-1.
  23. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 846–847.
  24. 1 2 Jenkins 2001, p. 860.
  25. 1 2 3 Charmley 1995, pp. 263–265.
  26. ↑ Gilbert 1988, pp. 814–815, 817.
  27. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 847.
  28. ↑ Gilbert 1991, pp. 846–857.
  29. ↑ Charmley 1995, p. 266.
  30. ↑ Jenkins 2001, pp. 868–871.
  31. 1 2 Jenkins 2001, p. 896.
  32. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 846–848.
  33. ↑ Brown, Judith (1998). The Twentieth Century. The Oxford History of the British Empire, Volume IV. Oxford University Press. pp. 339–340. ISBN   978-01-99246-79-3.
  34. ↑ Charmley 1995, pp. 261, 277, 285.
  35. ↑ Mumford, Andrew (2012). The Counter-Insurgency Myth: The British Experience of Irregular Warfare. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 49. ISBN   978-04-15667-45-6.
  36. 1 2 Jenkins 2001, pp. 847, 855.
  37. ↑ Charmley 1995, p. 255.
  38. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 848.
  39. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 849.
  40. ↑ Gilbert 1991, pp. 805–806.
  41. ↑ Blake & Louis 1993, p. 405.
  42. ↑ Gilbert 1991, pp. 827–832.
  43. ↑ Gilbert 1991, pp. 936–937.
  44. ↑ Jenkins 2001, pp. 880–881.
  45. ↑ Gilbert 1991, pp. 1009–1017.
  46. ↑ Charmley 1995, pp. 289–291.
  47. ↑ Rasor 2000, p. 205.
  48. ↑ Gilbert 1988, pp. 1224–1225.
  49. ↑ Montague Browne 1995, p. 213.
  50. ↑ Lovell, Mary S. (2011). The Churchills. London: Little, Brown Book Group. p. 486. ISBN   978-07-48117-11-6.
  51. 1 2 3 4 Jenkins 2001, p. 911.
  52. ↑ Montague Browne 1995, pp. 302–303.
  53. ↑ Soames 1998, p. 647.
  54. ↑ Bennett, William J. (2007). America the Last Best Hope. Volume II. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Inc. pp. 376–380. ISBN   978-14-18531-10-2.
  55. ↑ Jenkins 2001, p. 912.
  56. ↑ "Sir Winston leaves £304,044". The Glasgow Herald. 13 February 1965. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  57. ↑ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.

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Second premiership of Winston Churchill
26 October 1951 –5 April 1955
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