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compassion, collaboration & cooperation iN transistion

Two nations divided by the SAME language ... ?

 

The original pamplet - whose text has been reproduced in this Bodleian Library, University of Oxford 2nd edition reprint of 2004 - attracted quite a lot of attention in Britain at the time, not least because it gave an unusually direct view of how the British were seen by others.

An editorial in the London Times on July 14th 1942 suggested that it should become a best seller which "ought to be aquired by British readers in quantities unequalled even by the many works of Edgar Wallace or Nat Gould "

Perhaps slightly tongue in cheek, the writer compared the pamplet to the works of Irving, Emerson & Hawthorne, all writers who had tried to interpret Britain to an American audience, and commented that - "None of their august expositions has the spotlight directness of this revelation of plain common horse sense understanding of evident truths " -which no doubt rang in Ed Murrow's ears - as he flew on Allied bombing raids in Europe during the war, providing additional reports from the planes as they droned on over Europe - following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.

President Bush in his interview with the London Times - was reported to have said that

" I am under firm instructions from my wife to pick up a copy of the pamphlet "

Good Night, And Good Luck
With a desire to report the facts and enlighten the public, the ground breaking Ed Murrow and his dedicated staff @CBS - headed by his producers Fred Friendly & Joe Wershba - defied corporate and sponsorship pressures - in a true spirit of conscious capitalism - to examine the lies and scaremongering tactics perpetratred by Senator McCarthy during his communist 'witch-hunts'.

I can think of no better way of expressing my own feelings about - the special relationship - than to pay credit to George Clooney & Grant Heslov - for bringing us that brilliant, compelling & mesmerising epic ...


GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

After his summit with President Franklin Roosevelt in August 1941, Winston Churchill told the House of Commons that Britain and the United States “will have to be somewhat mixed up together in some of their affairs for mutual and general advantage.” 

He envisioned joint military 
bases, “common study of potential dangers,” and “interchange of officers and cadets.” He even mused about “common citizenship” for Americans and Brits. Washington and London never got quite that far, but they did forge what Churchill later called “a special relationship” to protect and promote their common interests. Today, as both countries deal with security challenges abroad and fiscal challenges at home, the special relationship is deepening in unprecedented ways. 



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over 2 years later Michael said

To quote Ed Murrow … OUR HISTORY will BE what WE MAKE of IT




Leave Your Wise and Insightful Comment

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Comment by Michael Grove on June 4, 2015 at 22:28



Although the two countries had a fitful history - going to war in the late 1700s, early 1800s

and nearly again in the early 1900s—the foundation of close collaboration was always there.

Teddy Roosevelt, for example, said the British and Americans are “akin…in feeling and principle.”

Pushed by those shared principles, the U.S. bankrolled the British in World War I. The U.S. and Britain

began exchanging intelligence about Japan in 1937. And as Britain fought alone against Hitler,

FDR opened the “great arsenal of democracy” so that Churchill might keep his island nation alive. 

Churchill knew America paid a price for focusing on the Atlantic. “If the United States have been

found at a disadvantage at various points in the Pacific Ocean,” he said after Pearl Harbor,

we know well that it is to no small extent because of the aid you have been giving us.”

As if to consecrate the U.S.-U.K. bond, FDR’s personal envoy to Britain, Harry Hopkins, rose

during a dinner with Churchill and quoted from the Book of Ruth: “Whither thou goest I will go,

and whither thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God,”

he declared, dramatically adding, “even to the end.” Churchill wept openly.

During the war, Churchill set up a Joint Staff Mission in Washington, D.C., as a liaison to

the U.S. military. FDR’s military liaison to Churchill was the Supreme Allied Commander,

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. Indeed, the pairings of presidents and prime ministers underscore

the common bonds and common history: Churchill and FDR, Churchill and Truman,

Churchill and Ike, Reagan and Thatcher, Clinton and Blair, Blair and Bush. Together, Britain and

America shaped the postwar world—rescuing West Berlin from Stalin, building NATO, defending

Korea. By the mid-1950s, they agreed, in the words of a Pentagon memo, to “coordinate the atomic

strike plans of the United States Air Force with the Royal Air Force” and share “atomic bombs in

the event of general war.” 

Thanks to Anglo-American resolve, the Cold War was won without those bombs ever falling

As Britain and America braced for another kind of war, in Kosovo, Prime Minister Tony Blair 

recalled Hopkins’ toast during a summit with President Bill Clinton. This time, it was the

American leader who wept.

Comment by Michael Grove on June 4, 2015 at 22:28

After his summit with President Franklin Roosevelt in August 1941, Winston Churchill told

the House of Commons that Britain and the United States “will have to be somewhat mixed up

together in some of their affairs for mutual and general advantage.”  He envisioned joint military

bases, “common study of potential dangers,” and “interchange of officers and cadets.” He even

mused about “common citizenship” for Americans and Brits. Washington and London never got

quite that far, but they did forge what Churchill later called “a special relationship” to protect

and promote their common interests. Today, as both countries deal with security challenges

abroad and fiscal challenges at home, the special relationship is deepening in unprecedented

ways. 



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