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Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Robert Schmuhl: Winston Churchill responded to political defeat by linking arms with America
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.
Asahi Shimbun
5 days ago
- Politics
- Asahi Shimbun
VOX POPULI: Truman never expressed regret for unleashing the A-bomb
A stone monument stands at the Trinity Site where the first detonation of an atomic bomb was conducted in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. (Asahi Shimbun file photo) On July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert, the United States conducted the first-ever detonation of a nuclear weapon. With a blinding flash and a searing fireball, humanity entered a new era, having harnessed the terrifying destructive power of the atomic bomb. The success of the test—code-named 'Trinity'—was quietly conveyed as good news to the leaders of the United States and Britain. At the time, U.S. President Harry S. Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill were in Germany for the Potsdam Conference, the final major meeting of Allied leaders during World War II. Recalling how he was informed of the news in 'Triumph and Tragedy,' the final volume of his six-part history series 'The Second World War,' Churchill wrote that a senior U.S. official 'laid before me a sheet of paper on which was written, 'Babies satisfactorily born.'' Some scientists warned that using nuclear weapons would mean opening the door to an era of devastation on an unimaginable scale, and urged Truman to proceed with caution. But their appeals failed to sway Truman or other key decision-makers. According to Churchill, the question of whether to use the atomic bomb to force Japan's surrender was never seriously debated. 'There was unanimous, automatic, unquestioned agreement around our table,' he wrote. After the war, a U.S. docudrama about the production and use of the bomb asked Truman whether the decision had been morally difficult. 'Hell no, I made it like that,' Truman replied, snapping his fingers. Just hearing those words is enough to make one tremble with anger. Even 80 years later, the world remains under the shadow of nuclear terror. According to estimates by Nagasaki University, the nine nuclear-armed nations now possess a combined total of 12,340 nuclear warheads. Although the number had been declining since the end of the Cold War, it is once again on the rise. In a nuclear war, there can be no winners. Reflecting on the aftermath of total destruction, Albert Einstein once remarked: 'I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.' —The Asahi Shimbun, July 16 * * * Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Daily Mail
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
What the first British soldier to enter Adolf Hitler's bunker after his suicide 80 years ago saw... and how he was allowed to take a memento
It was a 'horrible, grim place which smelt terribly', said the first British soldier to enter Adolf Hitler's Berlin bunker. The grimness and the stench was no surprise, given the horror of what had unfolded there just weeks earlier. For on April 30, 1945, 80 years ago today, 56-year-old Hitler and his partner turned wife of one day, Eva Braun, 33, took the coward's way out by taking their own lives. As Russian troops fought for control of the city just yards away above ground, Hitler shot himself and Braun bit down on a cyanide capsule. The bodies of the fallen Nazi dictator and his long-time other half were then carried outside and burned before being hastily buried. It was the Russian troops who found their remains, a fact of history which sparked decades of conspiracy theories that still refuse to die. The first British soldier that the Soviets allowed into Hitler's lair, in July 1945, was Hugh Lunghi, who was in Berlin as an interpreter for first Winston Churchill and then his successor as PM Clement Attlee as they attended the Potsdam Conference. Speaking decades later, Lunghi told how he saw a 'heap of ashes and a pile of stuff' that he was told was 'Hitler and his mistress'. Lunghi was allowed to walk around the bunker and was even given permission to take a memento. He claimed that he chose a volume of Hitler's Brockhaus encyclopaedia. Hitler had moved into the bunker - which was built in 1944 - in January 1945, when defeat in the Second World War loomed. It was from there that he plotted the ailing German military campaign, and railed against the reality of impending doom. By the start of April 1945, around 2.5million Russian soldiers had reached the capital. They reached the city centre two weeks later, with fighting taking place just a few hundred yards away from the entrance to Hitler's bunker. Hitler dictated his will in the early hours of April 28-29 and then married Braun. Their union was celebrated with a party in the bunker, with Hitler's closest aides present. In the day on the 29th, Hitler's SS bodyguards set about destroying his personal papers. What are believed to have been the teeth of Adolf Hitler Hitler's Alsatian dog, Blondi, was poisoned along with Braun's spaniel. On the morning of April 30, the sounds of Russian forces fighting nearby was audible in the bunker. Witnesses told how Hitler and Braun emerged from their suite to shake hands with their personal staff. Secretary Gertrud Junge recalled that she and her colleague Gerda Christian were given poison capsules by Hitler. Braun's last recorded words after embracing Junge were: 'Take my fur coat as a memory. I always like well-dressed women'. Hitler and Braun then retreated into their rooms and took their own lives. It is not known for certain if Hitler both shot himself and bit down on a cyanide capsule. Witnesses described his corpse being covered in blood, while Braun smelled of bitter almonds - the distinctive odour of cyanide. But examination of Hitler's teeth did find blue deposits, indicating the residue of a cyanide capsule. Speaking in 2005 in an interview with the Observer, Lunghi said of his visit: 'It was damp and nasty and there was a lot of dirty clothing - a horrible, grim place which smelt terribly. 'However, it was fascinating, and that was a moment when I thought: "My God, this is history." 'Outside there was a heap of ashes and a pile of stuff and I said, what was that? 'One of the soldiers, a major, said: "Oh, that's Hitler and his mistress." I don't think he realised he wasn't supposed to be telling me this.' He added: 'There were several rooms down there, including a medical room with a herb rack full of glass phials, which I suppose had both medicines and poisons in. Another room was like a studio and sitting-room with books in, including a set of Hitler's Brockhaus [the equivalent of Encyclopaedia Britannica ]. 'I took one volume and when I went up the steps again asked, can I take this? They said: "Oh yes, take it, by all means." Lunghi, who died aged 93 in 2014, also toured the Reich Chancellery building, from which he said he took chunks of Hitler's marble desk. He also took a file detailing the arrangements for Hitler's attendance at a 1937 trade fair. After their deaths, the corpses of Hitler and Braun were dragged into the garden of the Reich Chancellery, doused in petrol and then set on fire. But their bodies were only partly destroyed by the flames. Soviet troops found the remains and carried out an autopsy that would remain hidden for decades. Churchill himself went to the ruins of Hitler's bunker when he was in Berlin for the Potsdam Conference, at which the plan for the post-war peace was discussed. He was pictured sitting in a chair that had been in the bunker, yards away from where Hitler's body had been. But claims that Hitler had survived Germany's defeat were fuelled by Stalin himself, who cynically claimed that the Nazi was alive. Versions of the conspiracy theory - in particular the notion that he fled to Argentina and lived there in secret for years - have been detailed over the decades by dozens of books and TV shows. But reputable scholars have definitively challenged the notion that Hitler lived beyond 1945. British historian Luke Daly-Groves assessed the existing evidence in his 2019 book Hitler's Death: the Case Against Conspiracy. Examination of the charred remains of the corpses found in the gardens of the Reich Chancellery by Russian officials showed that one body was of a male aged between 50 and 60, and the other of a woman aged between 30 and 40. The Russians also tracked down Hitler's dental records and x-rays, which matched the fragments of teeth and jaw found in Berlin. Dr Daly-Groves also laid out the previously secret files detailing reported sightings of Hitler. When followed up, sightings were shown to be false trails. Also examined in his book was the British inquiry led by British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper in 1945. Then working as an intelligence officer, Trevor-Roper interviewed several people who were present in Hitler's bunker in his final days. They all testified that Hitler and Braun killed themselves. Among them was guard Hermann Karnau, who said he saw the bodies of Hitler and Braun on fire very close to the exit of the bunker. A new book published by German expert Professor Klaus Püschel also concludes that Hitler and Braun died in 1945. Professor Püschel said: 'There's no doubt anymore. Hitler bit down on a cyanide capsule and seconds later shot himself in the temple with a Walther PPK.' His German-language book, Der Tod geht über Leichen' ('Death Walks Over Corpses'), also outlines how Hitler's dental records matched the burned skull. It also outlines how the KGB kept Hitler's remains hidden for decades. They were buried in East Germany and then dug up again. On April 5, 1970, the last of Hitler's bones were burned in secret and his ashes were then dumped in a stream in the city of Magdeburg in East Germany. Before his service in Berlin, Lunghi had been the interpreter for Churchill at the Tehran and Yalta conferences in late 1943 and February 1945. Churchill was replaced as PM by Labour's Attlee after losing the July 1945 election. Until 1949, Lunghi interpreted for meetings between Stalin and British generals and diplomats, including ones with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and Lord Mountbatten.
Arab News
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Europe must wake up to hard power reality
A clip of Alex Younger, the former head of the UK's MI6 intelligence service, speaking about the current situation in Ukraine during an appearance on the BBC's 'Newsnight' program has been widely distributed across social media this week. In the clip, Younger starts by stating that we are no longer living in a world determined by 'rules and multilateralism' but by 'strongmen and deals.' Ask anyone in the Middle East and they will tell you the hard truth: we never left the world of strongmen and deals. It is Europe and the West, under full US protection, that have lived under the illusion or delusion that it is multilateralism and international rules that are key to global geopolitics. For the rest of the world, we are still in the Yalta-type situation Younger referenced. The Yalta Conference, held in the Crimea in February 1945 and attended by Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, outlined postwar Europe's division, Germany's occupation, the formation of the UN and Soviet influence over Eastern Europe. The true division happened during the Potsdam Conference, held in July 1945, which finalized Germany's division and demanded Japan's unconditional surrender. Afterward, the two superpowers moved into the Cold War era. The new reality Younger mentioned is anything but new. As he stated, 'it is not soft power or values' that determines countries' sphere of influence, 'it is hard power.' It has always been hard power and nothing else that has determined everything. You can sprinkle some soft power and values on top of the cake to make it look nice and to cover the taste of eggs in the recipe, but the recipe is, always has been and always will be hard power. I will not go deeper into the values he mentions, as Europe and the West have lost their true values to the progressive movement. On the topic of soft and hard power, I remember a conversation I had with a retired French official who already understood these realities more than a decade ago. He stated the reality of the softening of the Western world on the international scene. He bluntly stated that, without hard power, 'we are only cheese and wine salespeople.' And so, the calculations when it comes to Ukraine and for Europe to achieve its own 'sphere of influence,' as mentioned by Younger, are quite simple. The Europeans need to cut through the fog and ask themselves: Are we willing to enter an all-out war? This is the costly 'entry ticket' Younger alluded to if Europe is to enter the conversation and gain a sphere of influence. He is right that Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine has been clumsy and weak. Many military analysts I talked to in 2008 said the same of Russia's campaign in Georgia, which it nevertheless won. This was also evident in the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, where the support of Turkiye — a NATO ally — proved much more powerful than Moscow's. But Russia is now in an economy of war and is adapting fast. Europe is an economy of Ozempic and Louis Vuitton bags. Hence, the delusion that you can apply soft power and get what you want in an arena of war must be destroyed. Might I remind everyone that it was the victors that sat together in Yalta, not the defeated. Millions died. And so, what do we see on the ground in Ukraine? Let us firstly remember that the Russian military move took place in 2022, when Joe Biden was US president, and the buildup to it has often been disregarded. Today, Ukraine is doing the best it can with US military support. But it will not be able to defeat Russia or even repel it. This is now clear. It has been for the past three years. So, what should be the next step? Negotiate an exit from the war or fight harder? The delusion that you can apply soft power and get what you want in an arena of war must be destroyed. Khaled Abou Zahr In that context, if someone can tell me how they can turn the negotiations to Ukraine's advantage with soft power, as per the wishful thinking of the BBC host, I am all ears. It is the situation on the ground that will dictate the outcome, just as it did in Afghanistan. There is no sugarcoating a loss. So, what is Europe going to do about it? It can pin the blame on Donald Trump as much as it wants, but the real question is whether Europe is willing to go to war to stand up to Vladimir Putin and save Ukraine? So, who will go to war? And for what outcome? Europe does indeed need to 'wake up' and swiftly prepare for this 'new' reality, which has actually governed the world since the beginning of history. It might need to start by having a unified position on Russia and China. This is far from being the case today. As Younger stated, the 'free ride' on the US' back needs to end. Continuously putting the blame on Washington must stop too. The real enigma is can Europe do this without going to war in Ukraine? It is precisely the mistake Europe has made — that of thinking soft power has any value without hard power — that led us to this situation. At the very least, the next step should be to invest more in defense. Europe has the capability to build the military forces it needs to be a superior force. It lacks the will to do so. But more than spending billions, as war has already started, the real deterrence would be to convince its adversaries that it has the will to fight. Both Russia and Ukraine have shown this. So has the US. There needs to be strong action to make this buildup happen and to project the deterrence Europe needs and which can — with US support — change the reality. But let us be realistic: the US still has this deterrence, with Younger stating 'you underestimate America at your peril.' Europe needs to bring its real values back to the fore and show its resolve; then its allies and enemies will listen. Not before.
Telegraph
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Why the atomic bomb didn't really end the Second World War
On a sweltering morning in Tokyo almost 80 years ago, a historic meeting took place in the underground bunker of the imperial palace. It was August 14 1945, eight and five days (respectively) after atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hirohito, the emperor of Japan, was about to announce the end of the war in the Pacific. The Supreme War Council and the Japanese cabinet filed into the stifling room, and sat at long tables set at right angles to the gold-hued imperial one. After a delay of almost half an hour, Hirohito entered in uniform and sat before his government. Hirohito had already given his view, four days before, that the Allied ultimatum sent from the Potsdam Conference the previous month – that Japan must either surrender or face 'prompt and utter destruction' – should, as long as he could retain his throne, be accepted. Now, in the bunker, Suzuki Kantarō, the prime minister, invited the three opponents of peace on American terms to talk first: the war minister, followed by the chiefs of the navy and army staffs, voiced their objections. Then Suzuki, defying constitutional practice, turned to the emperor and asked him to give his opinion. Silence fell. The emperor reiterated his position to the assembly, and added, with finality: 'I would like you all to agree with me.' As he spoke, he had tears in his eyes. Soon, according to eyewitnesses, the whole group was sobbing aloud. Note, however, that Hirohito made no mention of 'surrender', a word that was anathema to the Japanese military; he spoke only of the 'termination of the war'. That euphemism was designed to show the Japanese people that the emperor was ending the war for their good, not because they had been defeated. 'Termination' became the standard term in Japan, even though the Allies treated the declaration then, and the West has since, as surrender in all but name. The emperor's decision was relayed to the American government, while Hirohito recorded a speech for his people to be broadcast the following day, August 15. Yet in Japan, this was by no means the end of the crisis. On the morning of the broadcast, a unit of soldiers broke into the imperial palace and hunted vainly for the recording, hoping to destroy it. They were eventually overcome, and order restored. Another group tried to storm the broadcasting station, without success. The broadcast was successfully made – but many listeners found it hard to hear, partly because the emperor spoke indistinctly and in traditional courtly Japanese, partly because of poor reception. Those who understood what was being said, many of them bowing before the radio, cried at the news, or were angered by it, or merely sagged in relief that the ordeal of total war was over. For the army and navy leaders who had dissented, however, there seemed only one way out. The war minister, Korechika Anami, committed ritual suicide (seppuku) in his office that morning; eight other leading generals and admirals followed suit. Some army and air-force units even refused to accept their emperor's decision. A naval kamikaze squadron dropped leaflets over Tokyo telling those below that the broadcast was fake. Another unit of soldiers seized hills in the centre of the city; most gave up when told that it was what the emperor wanted, but one group took their own lives using hand grenades. One air corps refused to disarm, and briefly threatened to shoot down American aircraft as they landed to begin the occupation of Japan. (The formal surrender would not occur until September 2, allowing time for sufficient Allied troops and materiel, principally American, to be stationed on Japanese soil. Those men only began to arrive on August 28.)
