Churchill and International diplomacy

• Churchill was an extremely talented speaker and spinner of events, persuading the public to accept the war, often saying phrases like 'unconditional surrender' 'we seek no territory' and 'we entered the war for the sake of our obligation to Poland'
• The battle of Britain was in 1940 and was a victory as it defended Britain against the German Airforce, merely defensive but Churchill made it a huge deal, especially with his 'finest hour speech'
• Churchill presented himself as a man of action, a man of the people, and a man of the world, mostly by solidifying an image for himself with his cigar and peace sign, people loved him and were willing to fight for his words
• Before America joined the war Churchill was trying desperately to get more supplies form them, asking for more ships, more supplies, 2,000 aircrafts a month and playing on Americas self interest through talks of how it will look in hindsight and the defeat of fascism
• The US joined the war in 1941 against Japan, Germany declared war against America, and therefore naturally became allies with Britain
• Churchill seemed like a natural ally to Roosevelt but he had a history of not committing himself, Churchill had much more affection than him and he deliberately snubbed him at the Tehran (1943), he was also very anti-empire
• Could be argued that Ch was the dominant force in the wartime relationship with Roosevelt: Ch convinced him into the Lend Lease Act (1941) which gave $31.6 billion to the British war effort, Ch was able to resist a invasion of France until 1944, Roosevelt felt there was no other choice than to accept the Med strategy in 1942 and was also convinced to focus on winning the war in Europe first, before in Japan.
• Could be argued Ch was not the dominant force in the wartime relationship with Roosevelt because British dependence on the Lend Lease gave the US power over the UK and took Britain's gold reserves in S Africa as security, as well as making profits off of supplying arms, R. refused to meet Ch in Tehran in 1943 and made policy with Stalin + at Quebec 1944 Ch got no commitment for Post war financial assistance and by 1945 had a debt of 21 Billion.
• By 1942, Churchill was increasingly worried that Russia would make another deal with Germany and so flew to Moscow to try and persuade Stalin to join the war, good idea because Stalin viewed his man a expendable and had significant influence and power
• Churchill split up the Balkans, he wrote this on a piece of paper, Greece would be 90% controlled by Britain, Romania and Bulgaria would be 90% Russian and Hungary would be 50-50. He did this to combat his declining influence which essentially gave Stalin the green light to take over
• Ch had previously condemned Stalin and Communism so it was difficult to ally with him, they dined together to get a closer relationship but the biggest contention was a second front because Stalin though Britain wasn't doing enough in the war
• Ch was weak in dealing with the USSR 1944-45 because Roosevelt sided with Stalin at Tehran because he was deemed a more important ally because of his victories in Stalingrad and Kursk, Churchill was forced to accept an invasion of France and sideline the Med. At Yalta 1945 he was forced to accept that Poland would fall under soviet influence which was embarrassing because they went to war for Polish independence, a similar thing happened at Potsdam when Russia got 25 of German land.
• Ch was not weak at handling the USSR because Churchill managed to maintain a working relationship with Stalin despite his hatred of communism and agreed on issues such as the bombing of Germany, any leader would've struggled under the changing circumstances of Britain needed Stalin much more than vice versa, Churchill was determined to promote Britain's interests and travelled to 16 conferences compared to Roosevelt's 12 and Stalin's 7
• Churchill's lack of understanding of de Gaulle led to poor relationships between them: Churchill found him hard to work with and considered removing him from leader of the Free French forces in Britain but he was too popular, Churchill lost his temper with De Gaulle right before D-Day saying that if he had to choose between France and Britain as their closest Ally, they would always pick the US
• Churchill's lac of understanding towards De Gaulle was not what led to poor relationships: Even his fellow Frenchmen fund him impossible to work with, he understood De Gaulle's need to be rude to him to show hat he wasn't a puppet, just before D-day CH invited him to speak but he refused because he couldn't call himself the leader of France, despite this Churchill still agreed for him to be the provisional leader of France. Churchill genuinely loved France and Roosevelt hated De Gaulle more.
• Tehran 1943: decided on strategy such as an invasion of France in 1944 and side-lining of the Med strategy, it was also decided that German would e split into zones if they won.
• Yalta 1945: Germany had been invaded at this point, was decided that Germany needed to surrender unconditionally and to all allies, decided here that Germany would be divided into 4 zones, Ch argued for a French zone, not only because he loved France but also so he could 'gang up' on USSR if need be. Also decided here was: Berlin being split, Nuremburg trials and demilitarization.
• Potsdam 1945: a more detailed Yalta, Germany would lose 25% of pre-war territory to the USSR and 11 million German citizens were removed from occupied territories, Churchill was worried this would anger Germany like the Treaty of Versailles but there was little he could do against the Red army already occupying such territories.
• Also at Yalta, Poland was told to have free and fair democratic elections but the communists and the USSR already controlled the polish government and 1,000 anti-communists had already been shot, Polish soldiers on the West's side weren't allowed to return home and 30committed suicide in protest. Humiliating for Churchill and he faced a vote of no confidence after a 3 day debate on the subject and an MP resigned.
• evidence Churchill was in favour of European unity: he spoke of unity in Zurich 1946 he called it a 'united states of Europe'. He had supported Briand's idea of a European Union in 1930 and had offered to unite Britain and France n 1940. He was far from being an isolationist and didn't see his links with America as a hurdle.
• evidence Churchill wasn't in favour of European unity: Britain's closest military relationship was till with the USA, he also still believed in the Empire and wanted to keep the close commonwealth economic ties. He had an unstable relationship with De Gaulle (vetoed us joining the EU in 1963) and European cooperation was seen as a way of stopping communism spreading.
• Evidence that Churchill's Iron Curtain speech was unwise: went to far in condemning a country that had just allied with us against Germany, inflicted 85% of German casualties and lost 7 million of their own. Could be considered to be stoking the fires of war, also could be argued that Russia had a right to secure that countries surrounding them were USSR friendly considering in both ward Germany invaded Russia through Poland
• Evidence Churchill's Iron Curtain speech wasn't unwise: Churchill expressed his admiration for the USSR and it's sacrifices as well as admit it doesn't want war. Truman was as anti-communist as Churchill he just didn't say it, he also approved the speech before it was said. Churchill's speech was just premature, some say he was proved right by the suppression of democracy throughout Eastern Europe, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary had all e subjected to communist dictatorship.
• Evidence Churchill dd manage to preserve Britain's place in the world: it sustained an alliance with the USSR and UA and up until 1944 played a crucial role in determining the way the war would be fought. Britain managed to get the empires support during the war despite major Nationalist movements like India's. Despite the Atlantic charter, Britain did not have to commit to the end of Empire. Churchill was able to postpone D-day until 1944.
• Evidence Churchill didn't manage to preserve Britain's place in the world: The war built momentum in India which ended up in independence in 1947. As the war progressed it was more obvious that the US and USSR had a leading role, reflected in the ganging up on Churchill at Tehran and lack of objection to dealings with Poland at Yalta, US economic power dwarfed the UK and produced 4X as many tanks and aircrafts as GB 1944-45