A statue of Winston Churchill is silhouetted against the Houses of Parliament and the early morning sky in London.Matt Dunham/The Associated Press
Seen through 21st-century eyes, Winston Churchill can seem like a ridiculous, even offensive figure. He was born in a palace. He barked at his servants and helpers. He took six bottles of vermouth and 18 bottles of whisky along when he went off to the Boer War. He opposed any form of Indian self-determination. He called Mahatma Gandhi a “half-naked” fakir.
A new documentary on Netflix reminds us of his eternal relevance.
Churchill at War tells the story of Churchill’s triumphant leadership during the Second World War. It’s an oft-told tale: dozens of cigar-chomping actors have played his part; scores of books (including a few by himself) have recounted his vital role. But this concise and vivid version seems especially timely now.
Tyranny is on the march again. Russia is pressing on with its brutal war of aggression and conquest against Ukraine, now nearly three years old. Iran is supplying Moscow with weapons and North Korea is sending soldiers. China and Russia vow that their friendship has no limits.
As in the 1930s, the democratic world has been slow to awaken to the gathering storm. It seems unbelievable that after prevailing over first fascism, then communism in the 20th century, the democracies should be called upon to face another mortal threat to freedom and peace in the 21st.
Yet face it we must. Churchill had the sense to see that tyrants can’t be appeased. One way or another, they need to be resisted.
Churchill at War recreates the speeches he gave in the House of Commons warning of the Nazi menace and imploring the government to rearm. He got only jeers and rolled eyes from most of his fellow MPs, who saw him as a Victorian relic with a brilliant mind but disastrous judgment. He was called upon to lead the country only when the barbarians were truly at the gate. Without the inspiring defiance and soaring rhetoric he showed as prime minister, it is almost certain that Britain would have sued for peace, leaving Europe under the Nazi heel.
That kind of leadership is sadly lacking today. The world’s most powerful democracy is soon to be led, again, by a man who thinks he can strike deals with the Vladimir Putins and Kim Jong Uns of the world, who appears to believe that NATO is nothing more than a pack of freeloaders and who wonders why the United States should bother itself about the quarrels of others in the first place.
The three strongest European democracies, Britain, Germany and France, are all suffering from varying degrees of political weakness and turmoil.
The free world finds itself wracked with doubt. Does Mr. Putin have a point when he says that decadent and hypocritical Western powers provoked Moscow into attacking Ukraine? Is China’s Xi Jinping right when he says we need a new, multipolar world order, freed from the domination of Washington and its allies? Is modern liberal democracy really worth defending at all, considering its inequalities and inefficiencies.
Faith in our most basic institutions, from a free press to the justice system, is crumbling in many countries. Conspiracy theories and misinformation circulate like viruses. The same crisis of faith was evident in the democracies in the 1930s. The rising new dictatorships seem so much more robust, more energetic, more orderly.
In fact, every tyranny contains the seeds of its own destruction. The outward strength of strongman regimes – all those tanks, all those bemedalled generals, all those patriotic rallies – is an illusion. Syria’s Assad dynasty evaporated almost overnight, leaving behind only empty palaces and abandoned army bases.
Democracies, for all their faults, have the shock absorbers to survive the inevitable crises that any nation encounters. Messier, noisier, they are also far sturdier.
Look at how South Korea pulled itself back from the brink, its democracy rescued by an enraged citizenry. Look at those vast crowds in Homs and Damascus, cheering the end of the dictatorship. Look at how the NATO partners that Donald Trump loves to trash have joined together to arm Ukraine.
Churchill pushed back against the doubters and appeasers who said that democracy was a spent force. He showed that the united democracies, well led and well armed, are an awesome force when roused to defend themselves and assert their values.
We hear his voice often in the Netflix doc: addressing the nation, declaiming in public, reading (through an actor) parts of his war memoirs. His words are stirring even now, decades later. He is eloquent, frank and often funny, but the quality that comes through, above all, is confidence. He made people believe again. If only we had someone like that today.