Mods, if this belongs in another forum, please move it.
I was reading about the `special relationship`between the UK and the USA today. One thing led to another, and eventually I found myself on the wiki
page for
The Atlantic Charter. The Charter was a series of joint agreements made between the
British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and the US President, Franklin Roosevelt. The agreements were to provide governance in the post-war world.
What struck me about the article was the strangely friendly tone of its writing. It seemed to contain many flattering statements that would normally
be weeded out by anal-retentive Wiki-War-II veterans. Allow me a demonstration.
As a cover story, a flag day was enacted at Upper Street, filmed, and then broadcast while Churchill had already set off for the conference using,
for the first part of the journey, the Great Central Railway. Embarking at Thurso, he then boarded HMS Prince of Wales at Scapa Flow. Though the
ship had to make multiple course changes to avoid U-boats and lost her escorts to bad weather, Churchill found the voyage restful, reading novels,
watching films and losing unmercifully at backgammon to Harry Hopkins.
This flattery is unsupported by any references, but for the sake of argument let's presume that its source is a first-hand account. Can we really
trust their stories here? Is it likely that Churchill enjoyed a bumpy, tense journey evading storms and enemy submarines? Picture it in your head.
It's simply absurd! We should not believe that it is true, even if it was a first-hand account.
This clear falsification led me to seek out other mis-truths and fictions in the wiki article's narrative. I found something immediately satisfying
in the next paragraph.
On the morning of Saturday, 9 August 1941 the Prince of Wales sailed into Placentia Bay down a line of United States ships to the USS Augusta
where Roosevelt—who, like Churchill, had left Washington under a cover story (he was supposedly in New England on a ten-day fishing trip)[1]—his
son and his chiefs of staff were waiting. On first meeting, Churchill and Roosevelt were silent for a moment until Churchill said "At long last, Mr.
President", to which Roosevelt replied "Glad to have you aboard, Mr. Churchill". Churchill then delivered to the president a letter from King
George VI and made an official statement which, despite two attempts, a sound-film crew present failed to record.
It feels to me improbable that a military film crew would botch the recording of an official statement twice. This statement is likewise unsourced,
and therefore suspicious. Because the statement was not recorded, we have no means of knowing what Winston actually said to Roosevelt. We have
no
confirmation that the king's message was delivered. This would not surprise me for two reasons. Americans have no special respect for Kings or
their messages and they prefer a fellow democrat. Churchill had
worked
against the interests of the sovereign in the past. Why would he not do it again, in the company of democrats, leaving no record of his actual
statement to prove his disloyalty?
One wonders what secret truths are hidden in this paragraph.
Whilst the chiefs of staff and head of state and head of government met, Churchill's bodyguard Walter Thompson was shown round the ship and
lunched with the president's bodyguard Mike Reilly. The following day, Sunday, August 10, a church parade was held on Prince of Wales.
From a lectern draped in British and U.S. flags, and with a congregation and naval clergy drawn from both nations, hymns selected by Churchill were
sung with the sound of the patrolling US aircraft overhead in the background. Walter Thompson was personally presented to the president by
Churchill on the last day of the conference.
I wonder, what were the hymns that Churchill selected? What were the services delivered on that day? What is the
secret faith of the elite?
Why was
Walter Thompson paraded
around?
Why did Churchill personally present him to Roosevelt?
Why did he serve as Churchill's bodyguard for 18
years even when it took him away from his duties at Scotland Yard and with his wife?
We may never know what really happened during that conference aboard two Naval vessels. What we do know is its aftermath; the forging of a 'special
relationship' between the elected leaders of the United Kingdom and the United States. The agreements made at that conference were made in confidence
and went unrecorded. They were agreements made at Churchill's discretion, or lack thereof. The agreements made the United States a partner in the Pax
Britannica and expanded that peace across the entire globe. This advanced Britain's interests in maintaining world peace, but it undermined the
kingdom's autonomy and power. It likewise advanced American interests across the Atlantic, but it undermined the nation's freedom.
This is how the post-war world was conceived; a special relationship cemented by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt and First Lord of the
Admiralty Churchill.