The Churchill estate’s censored legacy

I just received my copy of Churchill’s War, vol 1. I found it an excellent off-set to the Churchill estate’s censored spinning of his WWII legacy.

The very best criticism I’ve ever seen of Churchill’s 1939 and WWII Polish policy is the following commentary on World War I and Versailles:

“Only a prodigy could have brought about the rebirth of Poland. Before that event could come to pass, it was necessary that every single one of the three military Empires which had partitioned Poland (i.e. Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary) should be simultaneously and decisively defeated in war, or otherwise shattered. If the Powers which had devoured Poland stood together in a Drei-Kaiserbund, there was no force in the world which would or could have challenged them. If they warred on opposite sides, at least one would emerge among the victors and could not be despoiled of its possessions.”

Now all this was good common sense (to copy a another phrase often used by the very same writer). And it was obvious to many people in 1939 that the reemergence as military powers of two of these states, Germany and the USSR, placed Poland in an untenable situation. It’s a shame such common sense ideas played no part in formulating HMG’s Polish policy from 1939-1945. Certainly the results of WWII, with Stalin retaining all of his 1939 earnings from the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, proved the truth about not being able to ‘despoil’ a winner of possessions.

Oh yes. The quote is from “The Aftermath” (1928), by a writer named Winston S. Churchill.

Mark A. Gallmeier