Robert Schmuhl: Winston Churchill responded to political defeat by linking arms with America

Chicago Tribune

4 days ago

Winston Churchill knew political defeat but never quite like the one he suffered nearly 80 years ago on July 26, 1945. For this notable tippler, it was more humiliating than losing his seat in Parliament to a prohibitionist opponent two decades earlier.
In the United Kingdom's election of 1945, Churchill won his own campaign to remain in the House of Commons — but the Conservative Party he led received a drubbing. Labour captured 393 seats to 197 for the Conservatives.
Churchill, prime minister since 1940, was immediately shown the door of 10 Downing Street. Clementine Churchill tried to console her husband of 37 years: 'It may be a blessing in disguise.' Her distraught spouse snapped: 'At the moment, it's certainly very well disguised.'
Churchill's loss couldn't have come at a worst time, as far as he was concerned. The Potsdam Conference, involving the 'Big Three' of President Harry Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and Churchill, was in full swing.
Decisions about the postwar world, Germany's future and concluding hostilities against Japan remained unresolved. The new prime minister, Clement Attlee, replaced Churchill at the conference eight days before it ended.
Between April and late July of that year, Franklin Roosevelt had died, and Churchill was removed as head of the British government. Key World War II architects were no longer making decisions, leaving Stalin senior partner of the alliance battling the Axis powers.
But why, people today ask, did Churchill lose? British voters regarded Churchill an inspiring wartime commander. He rallied people during dark hours and many months of fighting alone against Adolf Hitler's Germany.
But as much as they admired him under fire, the United Kingdom citizenry harbored doubts about Churchill's capability to switch gears and lead in peacetime with different social and economic demands. To them, it was time for a change.
Dejected from rejection, Churchill went off on an Italian holiday to paint — and plot. The trouncing cast him in a new role, leader of the opposition, but he continued to scrutinize world affairs, as he'd done the decade before with Nazism and fascism on the rise.
Less than a year after being tossed out, he visited Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, to speak truth about power. He sounded the alarm that former ally Stalin was responsible for an 'iron curtain' descending across Europe, creating Soviet satellites to Kremlin rule.
From Churchill's perspective, the 'Soviet sphere' operated with pernicious intentions. 'I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires war,' he argued. 'What they desire is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines.'
Churchill's return to global attention received mixed reviews. Some commentators labeled his speech unduly bellicose; others applauded his courage to define ominous realities.
Churchill deliberately chose the U.S. rather than his homeland to plant his flag against Soviet expansionism. As prime minister, he'd made five transatlantic trips for extended meetings with Roosevelt. He understood America was the 'leader of the free world,' and he wanted to strengthen ties between his country and this one.
In his 'iron curtain' speech, Churchill spoke of the need for 'a special relationship.' He even proposed common citizenship. That phrase 'special relationship' entered common parlance and still reverberates in transatlantic affairs affecting the two nations.
But Churchill did more than compose and deliver memorable orations. He kept brawling in the political arena, winning back 10 Downing Street in 1951 and remaining in power until he resigned in 1955 at the age of 80.
Churchill considered Russia 'a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.' That convoluted, inscrutable description holds true today, as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin seem to talk past each other whenever they address the war in Ukraine and other subjects.
By contrast, America was an open book to Churchill and, in his opinion, 'at the pinnacle of world power.' He wanted the British empire, then showing definite signs of decline, to link arms in facing the future.
With shrewd foresight, he conducted personal diplomacy to nurture the 'special relationship,' scheduling regular parleys with presidents. Between 1946 and his last White House visit in 1959, he met with Truman and Dwight Eisenhower six times in Washington and New York.
On the day Churchill resigned 70 years ago this past April, he told his cabinet, 'Never be separated from the Americans.' The decade between his humiliation of 1945 and his departure as prime minister was marked by cataclysmic change and unrelenting Cold War danger. Yet as storm clouds gathered, he worked to disperse them.
During those years as before, he championed freedom and democracy. 'Trust the people' was his mantra — and his bulldog determination helped him rebound from defeat to return to the world stage, this time as a seeker of peace.