Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

When Hitler and Churchill
Thought Alike
We praise Churchill’s courageous oratory because we assume that the cause over which
one will not surrender is just. We are jolted when we hear Hitler using similar rhetoric.
M A N F R E D W E I D H O R N
Everyone knows that from May 1940 to June 1941
there took place one of the great duels in history.
Perhaps forgotten is that it was a case of what is now
called an “asymmetrical war”—between the premier military
power in the world and the premier naval power.
Hence, the fighting was transferred to the one realm in
which symmetry was possible—the air. The combatant
nations were, moreover, led by two men who were also, at
first glance, asymmetrical.
Setting aside the obvious difference that one of them
obtained and exercised power through the democratic
process, while the other was among the most oppressive dictators,
a few of the inconsequential differences were that
one was clean shaven and the other sported a distinctive
mustache; one was chubby and the other trim; one was a
patrician, with all the requisite tastes and acquaintances,
while the other came from the lower middle class and was
even homeless for a while: a “bum.” One would be named
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Dr. Weidhorn, of Fair Lawn, New Jersey (mfwh@optonline.net) is Guterman Professor of English Literature at Yeshiva University, a CC academic
adviser, and author of four books on Churchill’s rhetoric and literary work. Among his recent books is the well-received Person of the Millennium.
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