By Colton Grace
Recent tragedies in Europe have led many to cancel their vacations due to the threat of terrorism and have forced officials to rethink security measures at major events.
These devastating attacks underscore the threat posed by radical Islam, a threat the United States knows all too well. In the face of this new challenge to global security, perhaps it is time to revisit the historic alliance formed between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill the last time Europe and America faced a shared common enemy.
Historian Lewis E. Lehrman has provided an encyclopedic look into the complex alliance that was formed during World War II between the president and prime minister in his newest book, “Churchill, Roosevelt & Company: Studies in Character and Statecraft.”
Lehrman provides a heretofore unprecedented analysis of the relationship forged between the two allied leaders and their administrations, exploring the fabric that held them together as well as the challenges that threatened to weaken this critically important global partnership.
Only five days after becoming the prime minister of England in 1940, as Hitler is conquering the Netherlands, Winston Churchill pens an urgent letter to FDR seeking America’s aid:
“As you are no doubt aware, the scene had darkened swiftly. If necessary, we shall continue the war alone and we are not afraid of that. But I trust you realize, Mr. President, that the voice and the force of the United States may count for nothing if they are withheld too long. You may have a completely subjugated, Nazified Europe established with astonishing swiftness, and the weight may be more than we can bear.”
Lehman pulls directly from the writings of Churchill to show how well the prime minister comprehended the threat he was facing and what had to be done to defeat Nazi Germany.
To win the war, Churchill first had to convince Roosevelt – who on the campaign trail for his third term in office promised, “Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars” – to contribute to the war effort, and his selling point was true genius.
He warned the president that a British surrender would give the Germans control of the powerful Royal Navy, which would give the Nazi Regime an almost insurmountable advantage over the United States.
This fact spoke volumes to the former assistant secretary of the Navy who believed that sea power was crucial to world affairs and convinced Roosevelt that a British defeat was an unacceptable risk to American security.
The two leaders also had to overcome significant hurdles in their relationship.
Roosevelt and Churchill routinely disagreed over the future of the British Empire; they butted heads over Roosevelt’s attempts to collect on Lend-Lease debts mid-war; and toward the end of the conflict, the alliance was strained when Roosevelt placed greater emphasis on currying favor with Stalin.
Despite their differences in worldviews and the personal slights, Churchill and Roosevelt were rooted together in their desire to defeat Nazi Germany. Churchill would later say of this relationship: “I can’t describe the feelings of relief … the United States and Great Britain standing side by side. It is incredible to anyone who has lived through the lonely months of 1940. It is incredible. Thank God.”
The partnership struck between these two men, and the joint work of their staff as fleshed out thoroughly by Lehrman in this highly informative book, displays the possibilities that exist when two men from different countries, with different outlooks on the world and different personalities come together united by a common goal.
The relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill represented not only a bond between the two leaders, but a bond between thousands of Brits and Americans.
Gen. Eisenhower testified to this great relationship in a speech in London one month after the German surrender:
“No one could, alone, have brought about this result. Had I possessed the military skill of a Marlborough, the wisdom of Solomon, the understanding of Lincoln, I still would have been helpless without the loyalty, the vision, the generosity of thousands upon thousands of British and Americans.”
Through the successful wartime partnership between Roosevelt and Churchill, as vividly showcased in Lehrman’s “Churchill, Roosevelt & Company: Studies in Character and Statecraft,” one can better envision the sort of coalition again needed between Great Britain and the United States, as well as other allies, to work together again, this time to confront a new common enemy: fanatical Islamic terrorists.
Colton Grace is a free-market activist who has worked for a variety of campaigns and conservative nonprofits.
