Venator 1

Mitchell Venator
Professor Thomas
18 March 2015
UWRT 1102-064
Winston Churchill was the British Prime Minister during World War II. Prior to the war
he was a member of Parliament and a strong opponent of what he considered the appeasement
party. By appeasement party he meant those in Europe and the United States that were
willing to acceded to any demand(s) to avoid confronting the rising threat from Germany. This
book is a collection of 42 speeches that Churchill delivered in the British House of Commons
between 1928 and 1938.

The speeches run the gamut from light and amusing to dark and foreboding. The first
speech, Disarmament Fable delivered in 1928 pokes fun at those who believe disarmament can
lead to lasting peace. It contains the following lines; once all the animals agreed to disarm, but
the buffalo and stag wished to keep horns as defensive weapons, while the lion and tiger said
teeth and claws were ancient and honorable weapons that should also be allowed. The discussion
broke up and the animals "began to look at one another in a very nasty way." Hes making the
point that no one is going to give up defensive weapons because nations are naturally wary of
each other and that makes unilateral disarmament an unrealistic dream.

The speeches begin with discussions of the illusion of disarmament, move to the
rearming of Germany, and the worlds seemingly conscience effort to avoid addressing it, and

Venator 2
finally evaluates a fully rearmed German Reich. It is a series of speeches that were collected and
put into book form well before the famous appeasement at Munich. American historian William
Manchester claimed that a copy of this book was on President Franklin Roosevelts night stand
throughout World War II. We have all heard the clich hindsight is 20/20, but this collection of
speeches show that, for this period at least, Winston Churchills foresight was 20/20.

In June 1938 Churchill addressed the League of Nations and proclaimed "The idea that
dictators can be appeased by kind words and minor concessions is doomed to disappointment.
Still the world failed to react to the growing threat from Nazi Germany. Not until Hitler invaded
Poland in September 1939 did world leaders realize Hitler would not stop unless he was stopped.
This series of speeches is educational in a couple of ways; first it makes a great argument for the
proposition that evil people will not stop unless they are forced to stop, and second I think it may
be instructive given current events. With the reach of terrorist organization seeming to grow on a
daily basis our current policy appears to be; apologize for past wrongs, proclaim our tolerance
for every point of view and hope that if we are nice to them, they will leave us alone. That may
very well be the best policy, but after studying for this paper and reading this series of speeches, I
am beginning to question its merit.