“I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.
“You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.
“You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs - Victory in spite of all terrors - Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival….
“I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. I feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, ‘Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.’”—Sir Winston Churchill, first speech as British Prime Minister, May 13, 1940
David Cameron and Nick Clegg might have had to move fast in forming their coalition government to calm a nervous market, but their difficulties were nothing compared with the dilemma faced by Sir Winston Churchill in creating an all-party wartime coalition.
At its full length, Churchill’s address to the House of Commons was only about double what I’ve reproduced here. He didn’t waste time in explaining the need to form a coalition government fast to face down the Nazi threat in Norway, the Netherlands, and the expected invasion of his homeland.
Most of all, he didn’t lie about the magnitude of the task he faced. How refreshing that is in the modern age of spin, when governments (and businesses) lie, lie, and lie about the immense problems they face. In the famous image accompanying this post (produced when the photographer yanked away the leader's cherished and ever-present cigar), you can see the bulldog in the Last Lion, to be sure, but also grim, if unwavering, resolution.
Victory did indeed come “at all costs”—not merely the deaths of countless servicemen, but the destruction of the British Empire that Churchill had dedicated his long life to maintaining. But he assured the survival of the nation.
Let there be no mistake about it: Winston had real deficits as a wartime strategist. The other British politicians who possessed quarter-century-long memories of his advocacy of the disastrous campaign in the Dardanelles were right to feel qualms about his military judgment in taking over for discredited appeaser Neville Chamberlain. His urging of an attack on Sicily through the "soft underbelly" of Europe arguably diffused Allied energies for the all-important cross-channel invasion of France.
But time had proven him right about the threat posed by Hitler, so now he had the credibility to promise his countrymen that they could indeed hold off the Nazi dictator. By necessity, Churchill’s defiance was only a holding action until the U.S. and U.S.S.R. could join the fight. But he was beginning to prove that words could prove just as potent as other types of weapons in summoning his countrymen to their frightening but exhilarating challenge.
Most of all, he didn’t lie about the magnitude of the task he faced. How refreshing that is in the modern age of spin, when governments (and businesses) lie, lie, and lie about the immense problems they face. In the famous image accompanying this post (produced when the photographer yanked away the leader's cherished and ever-present cigar), you can see the bulldog in the Last Lion, to be sure, but also grim, if unwavering, resolution.
Victory did indeed come “at all costs”—not merely the deaths of countless servicemen, but the destruction of the British Empire that Churchill had dedicated his long life to maintaining. But he assured the survival of the nation.
Let there be no mistake about it: Winston had real deficits as a wartime strategist. The other British politicians who possessed quarter-century-long memories of his advocacy of the disastrous campaign in the Dardanelles were right to feel qualms about his military judgment in taking over for discredited appeaser Neville Chamberlain. His urging of an attack on Sicily through the "soft underbelly" of Europe arguably diffused Allied energies for the all-important cross-channel invasion of France.
But time had proven him right about the threat posed by Hitler, so now he had the credibility to promise his countrymen that they could indeed hold off the Nazi dictator. By necessity, Churchill’s defiance was only a holding action until the U.S. and U.S.S.R. could join the fight. But he was beginning to prove that words could prove just as potent as other types of weapons in summoning his countrymen to their frightening but exhilarating challenge.
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