“Never give in. Never. Never. In anything great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor or good sense.”

Churchill’s actions during his political life reflect his belief that one should never give up. But some of these actions bring into question Churchill’s concept of honor.

Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty during part of WW1. When the US objected to Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare, she agreed to surface to warn non military ships before sinking them. Churchill built war ships disguised as cargo vessels. These Q boats sank submarines that surfaced to give warning. This led Germany to resume unrestricted submarine warfare. This “barbaric” practice was one of the factors that led the United States to enter the war.

But who was to blame when Germany resumed unrestricted sub warfare? Germany had agreed to take some of the barbarity out of warfare, but Churchill subverted this humanitarian attempt. Churchill’s action was not based on any “conviction of honor” but on the principle that any conduct is permissible in wartime.

There is an interesting footnote to this WW1 background. On Dec. 7th 1941 the US navy ordered its submarines to begin unrestricted warfare. A practice that was so reprehensible that we went to war to protest it became standard practice only 23 years later.

In 1941, the Atlantic Charter was issued after a meeting of Churchill and Roosevelt. The Atlantic Charter painted a bright picture of freedom after the Nazi’s were defeated. The people of the world were to be able to live under the government of their own choosing. But throughout his terms as Prime Minister, he did his utmost to subvert the Atlantic Charter.

When India demanded freedom, he said he would not be the Prime Minister that broke up the British Empire. He remarked that he would not be influenced by Gandhi, in his estimate nothing but a naked fakir. Gandhi and Nehru were jailed when they continued to demand freedom.

Germany declared war on the United States after the Japanese attack on our naval forces at Pearl Harbor. Churchill and Roosevelt were soon at loggerheads as to strategic planning. Roosevelt pushed for a “second front” as soon as possible. He favored landings in France in 1942. The Russians had been driven back to Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad. Roosevelt was concerned that the Russians would make peace with the Germans as they had in 1918. He felt that a massive cross channel invasion was required to divert German forces from Russia.

Churchill succeeded in delaying the second front for 2 years. Instead, the allies landed in North Africa in 1942. When the Germans were driven out of North Africa, Churchill favored attacking the Balkans, the “soft underbelly” of Europe. The US military disputed that the Balkans were in fact a soft underbelly, and Roosevelt thought it was another attempt by Churchill to delay a meaningful second front. The invasion of Italy was a compromise agreed upon by the two leaders. “D Day” finally arrived in mid 1944. By this time, the Russian counter offensive was in full swing.

One excuse for Churchill’s foot dragging with respect to full scale war against Germany is that the memory of the carnage of the first World War was still fresh. I believe there was another reason. Churchill was a pragmatist. He knew that after a war, small countries become “clients” of the occupying power.. They become sources of raw material and markets for the winner’s products. He wanted Allied forces to liberate the Balkans before the Russians got there. Churchill could see no economic advantage in liberating France as France was unlikely to become a client state.

Churchill’s dreams of controlling the Balkans after the war dimmed by October of 1944. The Russian Army would “liberate” the Balkans. Churchill flew to Moscow to try to make the best deal he could with the Russians. Roosevelt was busy with his campaign for his fourth term as president and did not accompany him. Churchill was interested in getting Stalin’s agreement that after the war Britain would have a predominate position in Greece and share control of the other Balkan nations.

Churchill proposed that Britain should have a 90% interest in Greece while Russia would have a 10% interest. In Yugoslavia and Hungary, Churchill’s proposed a 50% interest for both countries. Russia was to have 90% predominance in Rumania. Stalin looked at the proposal and approved it with a check mark. Churchill called it a “naughty paper” but said it was only an interim agreement for the immediate post war.

Churchill refers to this episode in his History of the Second World War. Churchill specifically notes that the Russians lived up to this agreement. When the Communists in Greece seemed to be getting the upper hand in its war with the British backed King, Stalin ordered aid to the Greek Communists stopped.

Churchill violated the principles of the Atlantic Charter when he negotiated with Stalin to impose foreign domination on the Balkan countries. But it was not “conviction of honor” that caused Churchill to settle for only partial control. It was “good sense ” to accept the fact that the Red Army had beaten him to his prize.

It is common wisdom that Roosevelt was duped by Stalin into making territorial concessions at Yalta. As noted above, Churchill made private deals that conceded portions of Europe to Stalin before Yalta.