OCR Text |
Show Sir Winston Churchill With the death of Sir Winston Churchill the world has lost what many of its ablest observers have termed the man of the century. His death was neither unexpected nor untimely. It was the last of a series of bouts against the infirmities and fragility of old age. His life was a series of bouts against enemy nations in war as well as against political adversaries and the shortsightedness of his contemporaries. Churchill's finest hour came while he was at the helm of the British people's fight for survival against the threat of Nazi invasion. But much of his life was spent in the disfavor or disregard of his national and political contemporaries. After his dismissal as First Lord of the Admiralty (a position to which he was later re-appointed), he was virtually a voice in the wilderness in his warnings against the dangers of military buildup and expansionist expan-sionist desires in Hitler's Germany. Shortly after the war, Churchill again lost the favor of his countrymen and was voted out of office. Again, at first almost alone, he warned of giving Russia Rus-sia too large chunks of the post-war territorial pie. His foreboding, reflected in the title of the last volume of his war memores, Triumph and Tragedy, has justified itself with a near-prophetic accuracy. With the same resilience he had displayed so many times before, he ran early in the last decade and was again elected Prime Minister. His life is a chronicle of recoveries from monumental monu-mental setbacks and overcoming of what most would consider insurmountable obstacles. History may well substantiate that he is the most significant world figure yet to die during the lives of today's college students. |