What Was Churchill's Life Like After WW II?

Winston Churchill memorably reflected on the moment he assumed office as British Prime Minister on May 10, 1940. â??I felt,â? he wrote, â??as if I were walking with Destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.â? With Britainâ??s only belligerent ally, France, under attack by the Nazi war machine, and Germany in control of much of Eastern Europe and allied to Soviet Russia, Churchill â??slept soundlyâ? because, remarkably, he was sure he would not fail.

 

Most British political observers and most of the world, however, were not so sure. Churchillâ??s political career up to that moment had been one of great promise marred by failure. The British Conservative establishment distrusted him for switching political parties early in his career. After a good start as First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War, Churchill was forced to resign after the Dardanelles expedition that he championed ended in failure. In the 1920s he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, but between 1929 and 1939 he languished in the political wilderness despite his prescient warnings of the dangers posed by Hitlerâ??s Germany. Many in Britain considered him a warmonger, too dangerous and unreliable to be entrusted with ultimate power.

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