O lado dark de Winston Churchill, um velhaco imperialista, que salvou a Europa do nazismo...

O lado dark do grande (talvez cinzento) imperialista Wiston Churchill, que não apenas refletia os preconceitos de sua época, mas tinha um zelo especial pelas glórias do império britânico. O fato dele ter sido decisivo na resistência a Hitler, quando vários líderes britânicos queriam entrar em algum tipo de compromisso ou entendimento com o mostro nazista, oferece uma espécie de contraponto a todos os seus erros, seu racismo e seu imperialismo teimoso. Não compensa, talvez, mas no que nos concerne, foi um nobre gesto, tremendamente custoso para o seu povo. A resistência contra tiranos é, em si, um dever moral.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida 

WorldViews

The dark side of Winston Churchill’s legacy no one should forget

By Ishaan Tharoor The Washington Post, February 3, 2015, at 3:30 AM

The statue of Britain's former Prime Minister Winston Churchill is silhouetted in front of the Houses of Parliament in London, January 30, 2015. (Eddie Keogh/Reuters)

There's no Western statesmen — at least in the English-speaking world — more routinely lionized than Winston Churchill. Last Friday marked a half century since his funeral, an occasion that itself led to numerous commemorations and paeans to the British Bulldog, whose moral courage and patriotism helped steer his nation through World War II.
Churchill, after all, has been posthumously voted by his countrymen as the greatest Briton. The presence (and absence) of his bust in the White House was enough to create political scandal on both sides of the pond. The allure of his name is so strong that it launches a thousand quotations, many of which are apocryphal. At its core, Churchill's myth serves as a ready-made metaphor for boldness and leadership, no matter how vacuous the context in which said metaphor is deployed.
For example, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair earned comparisons to Churchill after dragging his country into the much-maligned 2003 Iraq war. So too Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose tough stance on Iran's nuclear ambitions has been cast by some in Churchill's heroic mold — the Israeli premier's uncompromising resolve a foil to the supposed "appeasement" tendencies of President Obama.
In the West, Churchill is a freedom fighter, the man who grimly withstood Nazism and helped save Western liberal democracy. It's a civilizational legacy that has been polished and placed on a mantle for decades. Churchill "launched the lifeboats," declared Time magazine, on the cover of its Jan. 2, 1950 issue that hailed the British leader as the "man of the half century."
But there's another side to Churchill's politics and career that should not be forgotten amid the endless parade of eulogies.  To many outside the West, he remains a grotesque racist and a stubborn imperialist, forever on the wrong side of history.
Churchill's detractors point to his well-documented bigotry, articulated often with shocking callousness and contempt. "I hate Indians," he once trumpeted. "They are a beastly people with a beastly religion."
He referred to Palestinians as "barbaric hordes who ate little but camel dung." When quashing insurgents in Sudan in the earlier days of his imperial career, Churchill boasted of killing three "savages." Contemplating restive populations in northwest Asia, he infamously lamented the "squeamishness" of his colleagues, who were not in "favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes."

Remembering British wartime PM Winston Churchill(1:45)

Britain marked 50 years since Prime Minister’s Winston Churchill's funeral was held in 1965. His funeral was the world's largest at the time, attended by leaders from more than 100 countries. (Reuters)

At this point, you may say, so what? Churchill's attitudes were hardly unique for the age in which he expounded them. All great men have flaws and contradictions — some of America's founding fathers, those paragons of liberty, were slave owners. One of Churchill's biographers, cited by my colleague Karla Adam, insists that his failings were ultimately "unimportant, all of them, compared to the centrality of the point of Winston Churchill, which is that he saved [Britain] from being invaded by the Nazis."
But that should not obscure the dangers of his worldview. Churchill's racism was wrapped up in his Tory zeal for empire, one which irked his wartime ally, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As a junior member of parliament, Churchill had cheered on Britain's plan for more conquests, insisting that its "Aryan stock is bound to triumph." It's strange to celebrate his bravado in the face of Hitler's war machine and not consider his wider thinking on other parts of the world. After all, these are places that, just like Europe and the West, still live with the legacy of Churchill's and Britain's actions at the time.
India, Britain's most important colonial possession, most animated Churchill. He despised the Indian independence movement and its spiritual leader, Mahatma Gandhi, whom he described as "half-naked" and labeled a "seditious fakir," or holy man. Most notoriously, Churchill presided over the hideous 1943 famine in Bengal, where some 3 million Indians perished, largely as a result of British imperial mismanagement. Churchill was both indifferent to the Indian plight and even mocked the millions suffering, chuckling over the culling of a population that bred "like rabbits."
Leopold Amery, Churchill's own Secretary of State for India, likened his boss's understanding of India's problems to King George III's apathy for the Americas. Amery vented in his private diaries, writing "on the subject of India, Winston is not quite sane" and that he didn't "see much difference between [Churchill's] outlook and Hitler's."
When Churchill did apply his attention to the subcontinent, it had other dire effects. As the Indian writer Pankaj Mishra explains in the New Yorker, Churchill was one of a coterie of imperial rulers who worked to create sectarian fissures within India's independence movement between Indian Hindus and Muslims, which led to the brutal partition of India when the former colony finally did win its freedom in 1947. Millions died or were displaced in an orgy of bloodshed that still echoes in the region's tense politics to this day. (India, it should be noted, was far from the only corner of the British empire victim to such divide-and-rule tactics.)
"The rival nationalisms and politicized religions the British Empire brought into being now clash in an enlarged geopolitical arena," writes Mishra, gesturing to the spread and growth of political Islam in parts of South Asia and the Middle East. "And the human costs of imperial overreaching seem unlikely to attain a final tally for many more decades."
When measuring up Churchill's legacy, that tally must be taken into account.

Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York.

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On this Day in History: Roosevelt, Churchill e Stalin se encontram em Teheran (NYT)

ON THIS DAY (The New York Yimes)

On Nov. 28, 1943, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin met in Tehran during World War II.

ROOSEVELT, STALIN, CHURCHILL AGREE ON PLANS FOR WAR ON GERMANY IN TALKS AT TEHERAN; 1,500 MORE TONS OF BOMBS DROPPED ON BERLIN

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DECISIONS VARIED

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Moscow Radio Asserts Political Problems Were Settled

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PARLEY NOW IS OVER

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Axis Reports Predict an Appeal to Germans to Quit Hitler

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By JAMES B. RESTON

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES

RELATED HEADLINES 1,000 Big Bombers, 7,789 Other Planes Built in November: Record Productions Achieved at Pace of One Every Five Minutes Around Clock: New Peaks in Navy Yards: 250,000 - Ton Output Is Largely of Combat ships, Among Them Many Aircraft Carriers Air Battles Sharp: Nazi Fighters and Guns Down 41 of RAF's Attacking Planes: South Berlin Hit: New Factory Area the Target in Fifth Heavy Blow in 15 Nights 8th Army Drives 6 MIles Up Coast Toward San Vito: Town 15 Miles From Key to Road to Rome Is Reported Taken -- Inland, Montgomery Wins Castelfrentano -- 5th Army Gains OTHER HEADLINES Soldier-Vote Bill Shifted by Senate to Let States Rule: Republicans Join With Southern Democrats in Scrapping the Plan for Federal Control: Congress Only to Advise: Opponents Will Charge Substitute Will Make Balloting Impossible for Forces Abroad Walker Opposes Postal Rate Rises: Tells Senators Department Is Studying Issue -- Swope Fights Racing Levy Olive Oil Imports Are Banned by U.S.: Importers Here Say Bumper Crop in Mediterranean Area May Go Begging Australians Peril Another Huon Base: Close in on Wareo, Japanese Stronghold in New Guinea - New Britain Is Battered Longo, Hague Foe, Is Imprisoned; Edison Joins U.S. Inquiry Plea RAF's Twin-Target Tactics Show Poser in Month's Blows at Reich

London, Saturday, Dec. 4--The Moscow radio announced early this morning that President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin had met in Teheran, Iran, "a few days ago" to discuss questions relating to the war and the post-war period.
"A few days ago," the Moscow radio said shortly after midnight, "a conference of the leaders of the three Allied nations--President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin--took place at Teheran.
"Military and diplomatic representatives also took part. The questions discussed at the conference related to the war against Germany and also to a range of political questions. Decisions were taken which will be published later."
[An Associated Press dispatch from London quoted the Soviet monitor as saying that full details of the conference might be announced between noon and 2 P.M. Eastern war time today, basing this prediction on the usual routine of the Moscow radio when announcing future broadcasts.]
The radio announcement, which came as a surprise to official quarters in London, said nothing about the present location of Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill, who held a five- day meeting with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek last week and made plans for the defeat of the Japanese and the dismemberment of their empire.
Details Are Awaited
Early this morning the Moscow radio had not indicated the nature of political and military discussions that took place in the Iranian capital, but it was generally assumed they dealt with the coordination of military plans for the final assault on Hitlerite Germany and with the unification of political plans for making peace with Germany on the basis of "unconditional surrender."
Official information that has come back to London since the Prime Minister left the capital has been extremely limited and indeed until the Moscow radio made its announcement the German radio was the main source of reports on the movements of the three leaders. It was, however, generally expected in London that the three leaders would in the course of their discussions decide to appeal to the German people over the heads of their Government to surrender or take the consequences of the air war in the west and an invasion of Russian armies from the east.
Stalin Crosses Own Border
While Mr. Churchill and Mr. Roosevelt had had seven previous conferences on the war, this was the first among the three leaders, and so far as is known it marked the first time that Mr. Stalin had left the Soviet Union since the revolution in 1917. The meeting was foreshadowed after the Quebec conference when Mr. Churchill told the House of Commons he "hoped" to meet with Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Stalin before the first of the year.
The Prime Minister had met Premier Stalin once before in the autumn of 1942, when he journeyed to Moscow to explain to him why it was impossible for the United States and Britain to invade the continent of Europe from the west that year.
Previous to that conference the United States and Britain had undertaken to concern themselves with the "urgent tasks" of creating a second front in 1942, and it is now known that the first Stalin-Churchill meeting was unsatisfactory to Mr. Stalin for military reasons. There are reasons for believing, however, that in Teheran very little if anything remained to be settled on the question of the second front except perhaps that of coordination of attacks on Germany from the east and west.
In addition to the coordination of military plans for a decisive phase of the war in Europe, it is generally believed by observers in London that the Teheran agenda covered a variety of questions that were either discussed briefly or shelved entirely by Secretary of State Cordell Hull, British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden and Foreign Commissar Vyachesalaff M. Molotoff when they met in Moscow last month.
Among the first of these questions was the status of the Polish Government, with which Premier Stalin broke diplomatic relations early this year. Since Britain went to war with Germany under the terms of the treaty alliance with Poland and since the Russian armies in their great westward sweep are now approaching the former Russo-Polish frontier, the Governments of both the United States and Britain have been hopeful that the Russo- Polish breach might be repaired.
Premier Stalin has already stated in a letter to The New York Times that he wished to see a "strong, independent Poland," and efforts have been made by London to try to get Mr. Stalin not only to renew diplomatic relations with Poland but, it is believed, to make Poland a party to the Russo-Czech twenty-year treaty alliance that will be signed within a few days.
It is assumed that this long-range question of the future Germany also was on the Teheran agenda for discussion and the question naturally arises as to whether the principle of "punishing" the aggressor would be applied to Germany as severely as it was applied to Japan in the Cairo declaration.
Whatever else the Allies may have agreed to coordinate at Teheran they did not coordinate their announcements about the fact that meetings were being held. The fact that the meetings were imminent was reported first in American newspapers. The fact that the North African conference with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek had ended was reported prematurely by a Reuter correspondent in Lisbon. Senator Tom Connally, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, shared with the German radio the honor of "breaking" prematurely the fact that Mr. Stalin, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill were in session and now this morning the Moscow radio, without pre- arrangement with London and Washington, announced that the conference had ended. Thus everybody "scooped" everybody else, which makes everybody even, although it makes nobody happy.
Axis Voices Concern
Before the Moscow broadcast today Axis sources continued to voice apprehension over the results of the parley.
Typical of their laborious attempts to anticipate the official announcements of the conference was the following comment in the Angriff:
"It seems that we are again to be asked to capitulate as a favor to the enemy. But we will again turn a deaf ear to this friendly invitation. The war criminals could have saved themselves a long trip."
The German telegraph service, picking up this same theme, which is general in the German press and radio, said "the [Allied] discussions are expected to result in a kind of ultimatum for the capitulation of the German people and its allies. The German people, however, know that their enemies try to hide their own weakness and difficulties behind every new propaganda bluff. This war of nerves is the enemy's last resort.
"The Russian drive has failed, the Allies have been unable to produce more than a slow- motion offensive in Italy, and the bombing in the west has failed to undermine either German morale or German production."
Elsewhere in the German press, however, correspondents do not support this official bravado. A remarkable article in Wednesday's Voelkisher Beobachter, for example, complains bitterly:
"Those people who spoke with deep sympathy about the people of bombed London have nothing else to say about bombed Berlin except, 'Well, you started it. Remember Warsaw, Rotterdam, London and Coventry? What you are now getting is only what you deserve.'"
Similarly Axis satellites are not either dismissing the "Big Three" conference lightly or attempting to speak like Germans of "the trumpets of Jericho which will leave the walls unmoved." They are admitting openly that the conference will have "great significance" no matter what it does.

O valor do voto na democracia - Paulo Roberto de Almeida

O valor do voto na democracia

Paulo Roberto de Almeida

A democracia foi definida, por Winston Churchill, como o pior dos regimes políticos, à exceção de todos os demais. De fato, ela não é a solução-milagre para todos os problemas sociais e econômicos que um povo enfrenta no caminho da prosperidade. Mas é ela que permite, de forma racional e pacífica, ainda que de maneira delongada e não isenta de confronto de opiniões, a busca de soluções para os principais problemas da sociedade, através dos mecanismos de representação política.

As prioridades mais comuns na vida das pessoas são: segurança na esfera privada, garantia de que os bens não serão tomados ou expropriados de forma ilegal, boas condições de habitação e de transportes, um emprego capaz de garantir sua manutenção e a de familiares, possibilidades de ascender na vida pelo trabalho honesto e  o acesso a cuidados razoáveis de saúde. A condição para que estes objetivos sejam alcançados é o nível de desenvolvimento social. Os elementos essenciais para a prosperidade de um povo são dados por um conjunto de requerimentos usualmente encontráveis nas democracias de mercado.

1) Estabilidade macroeconômica: ou seja, inflação baixa, valor de compra da moeda preservado, contas públicas equilibradas, juros e câmbio regulados mais pelo próprio mercado do que pelas manipulações dos governos.

2) Competição microeconômica: ambiente aberto à livre concorrência entre indivíduos e empresas, mediante inovações tecnológicas, sem a ação de monopólios e carteis; a competição saudável é a melhor garantia de que os consumidores terão bons produtos a preços acessíveis.

3) Boa governança: instituições sólidas, responsáveis e controladas por órgãos independentes e pela própria cidadania; justiça disponível a todos, rápida e justa; ampla segurança na defesa do patrimônio e respeito aos contratos; os representantes do povo devem ser abertos à verificação de suas ações, por meio da mais ampla e transparente publicidade no exercício de suas funções.

4) Alta qualidade dos recursos humanos: a boa educação para crianças e jovens, nos níveis básico, médio e técnico-profissional, é a garantia de que o país poderá prosperar mediante ganhos de produtividade e inovações tecnológicas; essa é a base mediante a qual se fazem boas universidades e instituições de pesquisa; todos devem ter acesso igualitário a uma educação de qualidade.

5) Abertura ao comércio e aos investimentos estrangeiros: os países mais ricos são aqueles mais abertos ao comércio internacional e aos capitais produtivos, sem discriminações falsamente nacionalistas; mais importante, aliás, do que o comércio de bens é o intercâmbio de ideias; a sua diversidade faz a riqueza de um povo.

Tais requisitos são mais comuns num ambiente democrático e numa economia de mercados livres do que em regimes fechados e dotados de um sistema político pouco. transparente.

Paulo Roberto de Almeida

[Tacoma, WA 9 de setembro de 2014]

Frase da semana: Winston Churchill sobre igualdade e desigualdade, no capitalismo e no socialismo

Parece que a desigualdade sob o capitalismo é um problema, o que eu não creio.
Dizem que é apenas inveja dos "menos iguais", ou desejosos de ascender na escala da riqueza.
Em todo caso, vale esta frase do famoso político inglês do século XX.

A desvantagem do capitalismo é a desigual distribuição das riquezas; a vantagem do socialismo é a igual distribuição das misérias. 
Winston Churchill

Um teoria para o pior tipo de idiota - Aaron James (um livro para nao recomendar...)

Voltando de uma pequena cidade do Massachusetts, Andover (when you enter it, it's almost over...), onde fomos, Carmen Lícia e eu, visitar bonitas exposições na Addison Gallery of American Art, que fica na Phillips Academy (e que recomendo vivamente, tanto a cidade, quanto o museu), paramos na volta num mall da estrada 84, a caminho de Hartford.
Enquanto Carmen Lícia percorria lojas para ver se encontrava alguma bota de inverno interessante, eu fiquei, como é meu péssimo hábito, sempre, numa Barnes, com dois livros no café Starrbucks da loja.
Um acabei comprando, e recomendo, a todos:

William Manchester (já falecido) e Paul Reid (que terminou o livro que seu mestre escrevia desde muitos anos):
The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965
(New York: Bantam Books, 2013, 1184 p.; $ 20, apenas...)

O livro é a segunda parte de Last Lion, cujo primeiro volume havia sido escrito unicamente por Manchester. Em 2003, ele pediu a Paul Reid que terminasse o segundo volume, que ele havia começado muitos anos antes. Impressionante qualidade da biografia, não apenas de um homem, provavelmente o maior líder político do século XX, mas de toda uma época, e de todo um mundo convulsionado pela guerra, e depois marcado pela lenta decadência inglesa, até a morte de Churchill, em 1965.
Em minha travessia dos EUA, em setembro e outubro últimos, tive a oportunidade de visitar o museu dedicado a Churchill, no local em que ele pronunciou seu famoso discurso da cortina de ferra que dividia a Europa, em Fulton, Missouri, na companhia do presidente Truman, um marco histórica do início da Guerra Fria, antes mesmo que ela fosse conhecida por esse nome. No ano passado, em Londres, havia visitado as "catacumbas" de Churchill, ou seja, os "war cabinets", que ele usou durante toda a guerra.

Mas, não era desse livro que eu pretendia falar, e sim deste aqui (desculpem a má qualidade das imagens, mas fui eu mesmo quem fotografei, na mesa do Starrbucks):

Aaron James: 
Assholes: A Theory
(New York: Doubleday, 2012, 224 p.; $ 24)

Enfim, existem muitas traduções para asshole, mas fiquemos com uma mais educada, do dicionário Webster:
"a usually vulgar : a stupid, incompetent, or detestable person. b usually vulgar : the worst place..."

O interessante no livro é a teoria, não o personagem em si, um idiota vulgar, grosseiro.
Vou colocar abaixo mais fotos da quarta capa, e das orelhas, para dar uma ideia a vocês da seriedade com que este filósofo de Harvard encara seu assunto principal.
O editor se refere a um outro livro, que também li, e já tenho, mas não sei se na versão americana ou  brasileira, pois o livro ficou na minha biblioteca de Brasília.
Este aqui:

Harry G. Frankfurt:
On Bullshit
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005)

Também posso dizer que, ao falar dos idiotas fundamentais, o livro me lembrou um outro, que li em edições italiana, francesa e americana, e que considero fundamental nesse tipo de literatura:

Carlos Maria Cipolla
As Leis Fundamentais da Estupidez Humana
(já resenhei algumas vezes e escrevi artigos a respeito; busquem neste mesmo blog).

Abaixo, reproduções fotográficas das informações do livro sobre a teoria dos assholes...

PS: 

Aos interessados, os posts que dediquei ao livro citado acima do historiador italiano Carlo Maria Cipolla (sim, cebola, o que já é uma qualidade interessante, para quem se ocupa de história econômica): 

As leis fundamentais da estupidez humana - Carlo Maria Cipolla

15 Mai 2012

Com esse título, o famoso historiador econômico e medievista italiano Carlo Maria Cipolla compôs, em algum momento dos anos 1980, um pequeno ensaio, humorístico-irônico, que foi transformado em peça de teatro ...

http://diplomatizzando.blogspot.com/

As Lei Fundamentais da Estupidez Humana - Carlo M. Cipolla

19 Mai 2012

Finalmente, consigo colocar as mãos, ou os olhos mais exatamente, numa tradução mais conforme da famosa obra do historiador econômico Carlo Maria Cipolla. O texto tinha sido publicado em inglês, em edição de autor, ...

http://diplomatizzando.blogspot.com/

Diplomatizzando: In praise of stupidity... (ainda bem...)

28 Mai 2012

In praise of stupidity... (ainda bem...) Já postei aqui um pequeno resumo das teses principais do historiador econômico Carlo Maria Cipolla, retiradas de seu livro sobre as leis fundamentais da estupidez humana:

http://diplomatizzando.blogspot.com/

Diplomatizzando: Juizes malucos podem ser as pessoas mais ...

04 Jan 2013

... historiador italiano, Carlo Maria Cipolla (procurem no meu blog), que dizia que os idiotas sao os individuos mais perigosos que existem, ja' que existem, soltinhos por ai, juizes perfeitamente malucos, que causam prejuizos ...

http://diplomatizzando.blogspot.com/

Diplomatizzando: 2053) O pais mais tolo do mundo; sim, existe...

21 Abr 2010

... ou seja, que são capazes de provocar danos a si mesmas ao agirem da forma como o fazem -- e isso recebeu um notável livreto sobre as leis universais da estupidez humana, do historiador italiano Carlo Maria Cipolla.

http://diplomatizzando.blogspot.com/

Across the whale in a month (3): Churchill's Cold War speech at Fulton, Missouri

Numa segunda-feira em que 99,99% dos museus americanos permanecem fechados, tivemos uma sorte danada ao poder visitar o memorial Churchill, localizado na pequena cidade de Fulton, no coração do Missouri, onde o famoso líder britânico da Segunda Guerra Mundial pronunciou o mais famoso discurso da Guerra Fria, na verdade, inaugurando, antecipadamente, a própria guerra fria.

Depois de sair de Saint Louis um pouco tarde, seguimos pela estrada que segue em direção a Kansas City. Exatamente no meio do caminho, e no meio do caminho entre a estrada principal e a capital do Missouri, uma sonolenta cidade de apenas 50 mil habitantes que responde pelo nome de Jefferson City (em homenagem ao terceiro presidente americano), fica esta pequena cidade que abriga o Westminster College (mesmo nome, talvez, do distrito eleitoral de Churchil, na Grã-Bretanha), que formulou o convite com o apoio do presidente Harry Truman, um caipira do Missouri (existe uma presidential library Harry Truman em Independence, pouco antes de Kansas City). 

Sempre tive curiosidade em saber por que, diabos, Churchill teria ido falar sobre tema tão importante quanto a dominação soviética na Europa centra e oriental numa cidadezinha sem qualquer importância no plano mundial como essa aldeia perdida na caipirolândia americana. Pois bem, soube agora como isso foi acontecer, um discurso memorável que colocou no mapa do mundo, e da História (com H maiúsculo) esta pequena cidade dotada de um belo museu dedicado ao maior inglês do século 20, um detestável imperialista, um indefectível colonialista, mas um grande líder militar, um estrategista razoável e um grande mestre das palavras. Ele ganhou os ingleses basicamente pela palavra e pelos escritos, pelas frases geniais, cheias de espírito. 

Relato abaixo como isso foi possível, que soube pelo guia do museu, ou doutorando em História dos EUA pelo Westminster College, e pela informação disponível na internet.

Tenho o prazer de apresentar, portanto, o

National Churchill Museum

no subsolo (ou térreo) desta bela igreja inglesa do século 17 (na verdade, do século 11, mas destruída por um incêndio, e reconstruída depois, em 1677), trazida pedra por pedra de Londres, para figurar nesse memorial construído especialmente para servir como uma espécie de panteão especial para Churchill e toda a sua história de vida, desde a juventude, até seu aparecimento inédito em Fulton. 

Na verdade, a história cobre até o final da Guerra Fria, e um pedaço do muro de Berlim figura no pátio da igreja, onde falou Gorbachev, em 1992 (ver foto abaixo).

Transcrevo uma informação sobre o local, retirada da atual "mãe dos burros", a Wikipedia.

The National Churchill Museum, (formerly the Winston Churchill Memorial and Library) located on the Westminster College campus in Fulton, Missouri, United States, commemorates the life and times of Sir Winston Churchill. In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his famous "Sinews of Peace" address in the Westminster Historic Gymnasium. His speech, due to one particularly famous phrase ("an ‘Iron Curtain’ has descended across the continent"), has come to be known as the "Iron Curtain" speech. One of Churchill's most famous speeches of all time, "Sinews of Peace" heralded the beginning of the Cold War.

The National Churchill Museum comprises three distinct but related elements: the Church of St Mary Aldermanbury, the museum, and the "Breakthrough" sculpture.

Aí estou eu, refletido no vidro da porta da entrada, para uma visita memorável, que me lembrou em algumas passagens as "catacumbas" do gabinete de guerra de Churchill em Londres, que visitamos um ano e meio atrás, quando fui dar uma palestra sobre o Brasil no King's College.

Continuo com a informação: 

Beneath the church is the Churchill museum, renovated in 2006. Through interactive new exhibits, the museum tells Churchill's story, discussing his personal and political life and his legacy. Additionally, the Clementine-Spencer Churchill Reading Room houses an extensive research collection about Churchill and his era.

Outside the church stands the "Breakthrough" sculpture, formed from eight sections of the Berlin Wall. Churchill's granddaughter, artist Edwina Sandys, designed the sculpture in order to commemorate both the "Sinews of Peace" speech and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In 1946, Winston Churchill travelled to Westminster College in order to deliver his famous "Sinews of Peace" address as a part of the Green Lecture series. An extraordinary confluence of circumstances conspired to bring Winston Churchill to Westminster. At the time, the College had a unique connection to U.S. President Harry S. Truman's administration—Major General Harry Vaughan, a graduate of Westminster College. College president Franc McCluer asked Vaughan to see what President Truman could do to induce Churchill to come to Westminster. President Truman thought the idea of bringing Churchill to Missouri (Truman's native state) was a wonderful idea. On the bottom of Churchill's invitation from Westminster College Truman wrote: "This is a wonderful school in my home state. Hope you can do it. I will introduce you."

So it was that two world leaders, Winston Churchill and President Harry Truman, descended onto the little campus of Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

Churchill arrived on the Westminster College campus on March 5, 1946 and delivered his address. Churchill's "Sinews of Peace" delineated the complications and tensions of that moment in world history—less than a year after World War II and at the dawn of the Cold War. Churchill had been watching the Soviet Union with increasing concern. Churchill feared another war. "A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory," he said; adding, "whatever conclusion may be drawn from these facts…this is certainly not the liberated Europe we fought to build up. Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace."

Churchill noted the tensions mounting between Eastern and Western Europe. "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic," he said, "an ‘iron curtain’ has descended across the continent." Churchill then predicted what he called the formation of the "Soviet sphere.

Agora uma descrição do museu, em si: 

Winston S. Churchill: A Life of Leadership gallery

Renovated in 2006, in honor of the 60th anniversary of the "Sinews of Peace," the Churchill museum strives to bring Churchill to life for new generations born years after Churchill's death. The objective of the museum is to tell the story of Churchill's life, giving due proportion both to his successes and his failures, and to let visitors make their own determinations about the man and his place in history.

This narrative is presented in the form of a "walkthrough" experience, organized chronologically. The exhibition begins with Churchill's birth and proceeds through the major events of his life, alongside an examination of the critical events of the 20th century. The exhibit relates the story of Churchill's entire life—not only his experiences in World War II—examining his pursuits as a politician, soldier, journalist, family man, and painter.

Some of the highlights of this exhibition include the "Admiralty, Army & Arsenal: 1914-1919" room. This portion of the exhibit is housed within a recreation of a World War I trench—complete with barbed wire, sandbags, and spent ammunition—that gives visitors a sense of a British soldier's experience on the Western Front. A periscope mounted on the trench wall gives visitors a glimpse of a real World War I battlescape from period footage. An accompanying ambient audio track plays the sound of soldiers’ conversations interspersed with distant gunfire and shell bursts. The World War I room also examines Churchill's role in the disasters of the Dardanelles and Gallipoliand his contributions to the technology of warfare.

Another highlight of the exhibition is "The Gathering Storm: 1929-1939" room which discusses Churchill's suspicion of Hitler and the Nazi movement. In this room, five video monitors play excerpts from Nazi propaganda films interspersed with images of the impending war, demonstrating how Nazi rhetoric differed from policy. Against this backdrop, the exhibit examines Churchill's view of the Nazis and his disgust for Britain's pre-war appeasement politics.

Yet another room, "Churchill's Finest Hour: World War II, 1939-1945", portrays World War II and Churchill's pivotal role in that conflict. Here, a sound and light show replicates an air-raid on London during the "Blitz". Simulated rubble surrounds the room and the room reverberates with the sounds of bombs detonating and air raid sirens sounding. Flashes of anti-aircraft fire and the prodding beams of searchlights illuminate the exhibit. Segments of war-time broadcasts add to the atmosphere. After the conclusion of the Blitzdemonstration, a short film, narrated by Walter Cronkite, examines Churchill's role as prime minister during the war. Around the walls of his room, more interactive displays describe the war-time skills of code breaking and plane spotting.

Other museum highlights include "The Sinews of Peace" room and the "Winston's Wit & Wisdom" room. "The Sinews of Peace" tells the story of how and why Churchill came to visit Westminster College. Featured in this exhibit are the lectern and chair used by Churchill during his speech and the ceremonial robes he wore. In "Winston's Wit & Wisdom" visitors sit in a simulated British club while listening to an audio presentation of Churchill stories. Visitors to this room may also search through a database of Churchill's most famous quotations and quips on a host of topics.

Foi, até agora, o ponto alto de nossa travessia pelos Estados Unidos.

Carmen Lícia fez várias fotos do museu, e minhas, fora e dentro do museu. Posto aqui uma delas.

Amanhã, ou melhor, hoje, terça-feira, dia 17, tem mais: vamos visitar o Memorial da Primeira Guerra Mundial em Kansas City, onde tem uma exposição especial sobre os dez anos que precederam a guerra.

A viagem continua.

Paulo Roberto de Almeida