(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)
Just before Christmas, 1941 Churchill and a British war-planning party arrived in Washington. Churchill stayed at the White House. His bedroom was just across the hall from FDR’s. Many nights the two leaders stayed up talking into the wee hours; their friendship at high tide.
On December 26 Churchill delivered a speech to a joint session of the Congress. It was very well received by the lawmakers and the nation. In An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, Jon Meacham tells us the speech’s positive reception concerned some of FDR’s aides but not their chief:
The men around Roosevelt were worried that their guest’s rhetorical triumph on Capitol Hill would overshadow their boss as the State of the Union message drew near. [Press Secretary] Steve Early, “fiercely loyal and jealous of his Chief’s prestige,” [Speechwriter Robert] Sherwood recalled, “kept a chart showing the fluctuations of the size of the President’s radio audiences and he did not welcome the appearance of a new star attraction in a field which Roosevelt had so long monopolized.”Churchill and Roosevelt were often rivals but the source(s) of their rivalries were, I think, less a matter of their egos clashing than is was the genuine policy and strategy differences the two men had.
Roosevelt was as competitive as any man who ever lived, but in this flush season of friendship, Sherwood said, he “was not troubled; he was greatly amused by his friends’ concern.
Churchill may have sensed something of the behind-the-scenes drama, for when Roosevelt read a draft to him, Churchill was flattering. “It went over big,” Roosevelt told his advisers later.
Perhaps one reason Roosevelt was able to laugh off his aides’ anxiety about his rank in the rhetorical arena was that the politician in him understood that whatever the style of the speech, it s substance would guarantee his preeminence in the emerging firm of Roosevelt & Churchill (p. 158)
A point where I’d question Meacham: How does he know Churchill responded to FDR’s reading of his draft State of the Union address with flattery? Churchill’s praise may have been genuine.
1 comments:
I would tend to believe that FDR would have produced a SOU address with Churchill's prior speech in mind. That can obviously help create a superb speech since it came after Churchill's.
I serisouly doubt FDR would be jealous of Churchill's speech - Churchill was a UK politician who was not a political threat to FDR. FDR also was able to connect with the 'common man' on a 'common level'. Churchill would have been received differently but with interest from the public (hence a larger radio audience). Churchill would have been unelectable in the US but in any case FDR did find Churchill useful in that they agreed on most things but also he was a face of 'civility' in Europe for the Americans to look at (and identify with).
The idea that the hugely popular FDR would feel threatened by Churchill in america is a bit too much. If anything it might have made his SOU better than it would have otherwise been since revisions were likely necessary, perhaps other points to reinforce Churchill's message.
I do like these posts...keep them up.
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