Buchanan Portrays Churchill's Warnings as Political Dogma Scott Manning June 21, 2008

In Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War", Patrick J. Buchanan uses part of a correspondence between Churchill and his cousin, Lord Londonderry, to give the impression that Churchill's efforts to confront Germany during the 1930's were nothing more than a 400 year old policy Great Britain had maintained in order to oppose those stronger than her.

Buchanan also gets the date of the correspondence wrong by 2 years.

Great Britain's "carcass of dead policies"

In the first chapter titled "The End of 'Splendid Isolation,'" Buchanan walks the reader through the arms race leading up to World War I. Buchanan portrays Germany as a country innocently trying to build up a navy for itself and Great Britain undermining Germany at every step in order to maintain her supremacy in the seas (A future article will cover the issues with this angle).

Buchanan portrays Great Britain's efforts to stay superior as nothing more than out-dated, political dogma. To drive home his point and to somehow tie Churchill to the situation, he gives a portion of a correspondence between Lord Londonderry and Churchill from 1936 (more than 3 decades later). While the correspondence does not directly address the arms race leading up to World War I, Buchanan offers it as an example of an Englishman blindly supporting what Buchanan sees as an out-dated policy.

It is important to note upfront that Buchanan says the correspondence took place in 1938, but it actually took place in 1936.

To British statesmen, maintaining a balance of power was dogma. In 1938, Lord Londonderry, back from a meeting with Hitler, wrote Churchill, "I should like to get out of your mind what appears to be a strong anti-German obsession." Churchill replied that Londonderry was "mistaken in supposing that I have an anti-German obsession," and went on to explain:

British policy for four hundred years has been to oppose the strongest power in Europe by weaving together a combination of other countries strong enough to face the bully. Sometimes it is Spain, sometimes the French monarchy, sometimes Germany. I have no doubt about who it is now. But if France set up to claim the over-lordship of Europe, I should equally endeavour to oppose them. It is thus through the centuries we have kept our liberties and maintained our life and power.

Twice this policy would bring Britain into war with Germany until, by 1945, Britain was too weak to play the role any longer. She would lose her empire because of what Lord Salisbury had said in 1877 was the "commonest error in politics . . . sticking to the carcass of dead policies." (Buchanan, pp. 20-21)

I would attribute the date issue as a mere mix-up on Buchanan's part. However, this does demonstrate that his book includes sloppiness as well as distortion of events. Yet, when you couple the date mix-up with the excerpt of Churchill's reply to Lord Londonderry, it gives the impression that Churchill's warnings over Hitler were nothing more than political dogma as late as 1938. The threat of Hitler in 1938 was more real to the public than in 1936.

Churchill's Warnings Were Not Based on Nationality

The truth is that the correspondence took place on May 4, 1936 (Gilbert, p. 555). Less than 2 months prior, Hitler had sent troops into the Rhineland breaking yet another clause of the Treaty of Versailles (Gilbert, p. 551). Churchill brought up the 400 year old policy to Lord Londonderry to explain that confronting bullies is nothing new for Great Britain, but then he followed up with a caution concerning Hitler in the same letter.

I hope you will not become too prominently identified with the pro-German view. If I read the future aright Hitler's government will confront Europe with a series of outrageous events and ever-growing military might. It is events which will show our dangers, though for some the lesson will come too late. (Gilbert, p. 555)

In 1936, this type of talk is what set Churchill apart from other politicians who believed a road of appeasement would prevent war. Churchill saw otherwise and was not silent about it. His point to Lord Londonderry was that Hitler was going to bring war to Europe and that Churchill would have the same concern regardless of Hitler's nationality.

References

Buchanan, Patrick J. Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War". New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2008.

Gilbert, Martin. Churchill: A Life. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1991.

More on the "Unnecessary War"

The commentary on Patrick J. Buchanan's book doesn't stop here. We've discovered more questionable historical analysis, hacked quotes, copied maps, and flat-out mistakes in the book. Read more here.