Mark
A. Gallmeier
writes from Port Charlotte,
Florida, on May22, 2000

The
Churchill estate’s censored legacy

I just received my copy of Churchill’s
War, vol 1. I found it an excellent off-set to the
Churchill estate’s censored spinning of his WWII legacy.

The very best criticism I’ve ever seen of Churchill’s
1939 and WWII Polish policy is the following commentary on
World War I and Versailles:

“Only a prodigy could have brought about the
rebirth of Poland. Before that event could come to pass,
it was necessary that every single one of the three
military Empires which had partitioned Poland (i.e.
Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary) should be
simultaneously and decisively defeated in war, or
otherwise shattered. If the Powers which had devoured
Poland stood together in a Drei-Kaiserbund, there was no
force in the world which would or could have challenged
them.

If they warred on opposite sides, at least one
would emerge among the victors and could not be despoiled
of its possessions.”

Now all this was good common sense (to copy a another phrase often used by the very same writer). And it was obvious to many people in 1939 that the reemergence as military powers of two of these states, Germany and the
USSR, placed Poland in an untenable situation. It’s a shame such common sense ideas played no part in formulating HMG’s
Polish policy from 1939-1945.

Certainly the results of
WWII, with Stalin retaining all of his 1939 earnings from the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, proved the truth about not being able to ‘despoil’ a winner of possessions.

Oh yes. The quote is from “The Aftermath” (1928), by a writer named Winston S. Churchill.

Mark
A. Gallmeier