in bronze, and looking a little perplexed, was renamed the Freedom Foyer for the occasion. John Kerry, the Secretary of State, listened as John Boehner, the leader of the House Republicans, gave a passionate speech of dedication.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” said Mr Boehner, “this is one of history’s true love stories. Between a great statesman and a nation he called 'The Great Republic.’ ” The famously sentimental Republican wiped tears from his eyes as the crowd listened to a recording of Churchill addressing Congress following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Afterwards, Roger Daltrey of The Whos sang Stand by Me – a tribute, Mr Boehner said, to “the best friend the United States ever had ”.
All in all, it was a very American ceremony to celebrate the life of a very British icon.
So why do our transatlantic friends love a foreign former prime minister so much?
That love is undeniable and deep. In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower said that Churchill
“comes closest to fulfilling the requirement of greatness of any individual that I have met
in my lifetime”. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, President George W Bush invoked
Churchill’s name when pressing the case for the War on Terror, and was rumoured to have been
given a private lecture by Martin Gilbert, Churchill’s biographer, in the White House. After newbie
President Barack Obama removed a bust of Churchill from the Oval Office, Republican presidential
candidate Mitt Romney made it an election promise to restore it. And when CEOs in 2013 were
polled for their “most admired leader”, Churchill topped the list – ahead of the likes of ...
Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela and Ronald Reagan.
…