[…] spheres of influence over selfdetermination; corruption over transparency; and repression over democracy.” Yet, accommodating a sphere of influence for a great power is exactly what FDR and Churchill did with Stalin, and every president from Truman to George H. W. Bush did with the Soviet Union. When East Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Poles rose up […]
[PDF file]: […] with enthusiasm across the globe. From the start of 1941 onwards, similar pledges were made by democracies, resistance movements and international organisations. The Atlantic Charter, signed by Churchill and Roosevelt in August 1941, included the commitment to secure ‘freedom from fear and want’ for all, along with ‘improved labour standards, economic advancement, and social […]
[PDF file]: […] Hastings attributes this to Britain’s (and the USA’s) national ‘culture’ of ‘intellectual honesty’, which is something else for us to congratulate ourselves upon. It also helped that Churchill and Roosevelt were more openminded than Hitler and Stalin. Reinforcing this trope were the exploits of the brave ‘few’ in the Battle of Britain – ‘few’ […]
