Sir Winston Churchill was born 150 years ago, on November 30, 1874, at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. Best known as the inspirational British Prime Minister that steered the country through World War II, Churchill enjoyed an exceptionally long career as a statesman and politician lasting over six decades. During that time, he had meaningful contact with 11 different American presidents, an extraordinary number which serves as a testament to the longevity of his influence on the world stage.
Churchill is usually characterized as being so quintessentially British that it is easy to forget his mother, Jennie, hailed from the USA. Travelling by steamship to New York, he made the first of his 16 visits to America in late 1895, shortly before his 21st birthday. The young Churchill was impressed by what he discovered, writing to his brother: “This is a very great country…Not pretty or romantic but great and utilitarian”.
He returned to North America five years later, not long after having been elected to the UK Parliament for the first time. Churchill embarked on a lucrative lecture tour of Canada and the eastern United States to promote his latest book, during the course of which he visited Washington, D.C. and here he had his first personal encounter with a US President. Senator Chauncey DePew, an old friend of his American maternal grandfather, took him to the White House to be introduced briefly to William McKinley. Churchill later wrote to his mother that he had been “considerably impressed” by the President.
McKinley was assassinated the following September and was succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt, whom Churchill had met the previous year in Albany. The then-vice president-elect Roosevelt had personally invited the British visitor to dine with him, but it seems his opinion of Churchill was ambivalent. He subsequently told a friend: “I saw the Englishman, Winston Churchill, here and although he is not an attractive fellow, I was interested in some of the things he said.”
Roosevelt’s attitude towards the Englishman remained indifferent. The two men never met during his time in the White House and even as late as 1910, Roosevelt was congratulating himself on having swerved a meeting with Churchill whilst on a tour of Europe.
Churchill never met Roosevelt’s successor, William H. Taft, but did become acquainted with Woodrow Wilson. Wilson became the first US President to visit Europe whilst in office when he attended the Paris Peace Conference in early 1919. Here he clashed with Churchill over how best to deal with the Bolsheviks who had seized power in Russia. Whereas the British statesman favored active support for the anti-Bolshevik cause, the US President advocated a policy of non-intervention. In a later memoir, Churchill remarked that Wilson adopted a policy of “peace and goodwill among all nations abroad but no truck with the Republican Party at home”.
When Churchill found himself in the political wilderness following the defeat of the Conservative Party at the 1929 General Election, he decided to undertake a second money-spinning lecture tour of the States and returned to North America for the first time in nearly three decades.
On this visit, Churchill travelled to the West Coast for the only time in his life. He met the newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst, and movie star, Charlie Chaplin, before traversing the country by rail and arriving in Washington, D.C. in mid-October 1929. In 1900, Churchill had been reliant on the support of a well-connected family friend to gain admittance to the White House. Now, as a well-respected political figure, he was given the courtesy of a meeting with President Herbert Hoover at the White House, although press reports describe it as nothing more than a “brief call”.
The Wall Street Crash occurred just a week after his meeting with Hoover, as a result of which Churchill made very little from his lectures. He returned to the States just two years later to repeat the experience. On this occasion, Churchill was involved in a near-fatal collision with a car on New York’s Fifth Avenue but recovered sufficiently to pay another brief visit to Hoover at the White House.
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Prime Minister Winston Churchill (right) with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Photo Credit: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
Churchill’s finest hour as a statesman came during World War II when he was called upon to lead a British coalition government. Only six days after the attack on Pearl Harbor in early December 1941, he set sail for America on board the battleship, Duke of York, for a face-to-face meeting with President Franklin Roosevelt. With German U-boats active in the Atlantic, the journey was fraught with danger and the British Prime Minister’s presence on board ship was kept top secret. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt would later recall that even she was not told in advance the identity of the White House mystery guest.
Churchill arrived on December 22nd and stayed until well into the New Year. Having enjoyed a traditional turkey dinner with the Roosevelts on Christmas Day, Churchill famously became the first British Prime Minister to address Congress the following day, giving a rousing speech to rapturous applause.
Anecdotes abound regarding his time at the White House. One evening, Roosevelt interrupted Churchill whilst he was taking a late-night bath to seek his approval on the wording of a press release. Churchill greeted him stark-naked at the door, much to Roosevelt’s amusement. On relaying this story to King George VI, Churchill is said to have claimed: “Sir, I believe I am the only man in the world who has received the head of a nation without any clothes on.”
Churchill made several further visits to the States during World War II. He and Roosevelt enjoyed a particularly cordial relationship, forming a bond of mutual support and respect that proved invaluable for both men in coping with the heavy responsibility of wartime leadership.
Although Churchill’s Conservative Party surprisingly lost the first post-war General Election, he continued to visit the States on a regular basis. In early 1946, he began a lecture tour of American universities and on a visit to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, famously coined the phrase “special relationship” to describe the unique nature of the alliance between the USA and Britain.
He shared a platform on this momentous occasion with President Harry S. Truman, who introduced him “as one of the great men of the age”. It wasn’t their first meeting. Following Roosevelt’s untimely death in April 1945, Churchill had initially planned to attend his funeral, but, with the war at a critical moment, was dissuaded from flying to Washington. Truman had looked forward to having an early opportunity to meet him, but, in the event, had to wait until the Potsdam Conference in July of the same year. After their first meeting, the British statesman praised Truman as “a man of immense determination”.
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Winston Churchill pins a flower on President Harry S. Truman's lapel at a dinner in honor of the British leader at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., 1953.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Churchill returned to office as Prime Minister in October 1951. During an official visit to Washington early the following year, he and Truman held informal talks during a two-hour cruise on board the presidential yacht, Williamsburg, and a few days later Churchill made what transpired to be his third and final address to Congress.
A 38-year-old Gerald Ford, then a member of the House of Representatives, was present that day and subsequently wrote an interesting report of proceedings for his constituents. He confessed that he had looked forward “to a Churchillian gem”, but “somehow it wasn’t quite up to expectations”. Nevertheless, he concluded: “It was a real treat to see and hear this great statesman who represents our staunch British friends.”
Churchill’s relationship with Truman’s successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, dated all the way back to World War II. The British Prime Minister was reported to have been immediately impressed by the American upon first meeting him at the White House in June 1942. In his subsequent role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, Eisenhower liaised closely with Churchill and was frequently invited to spend weekends at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s official countryside retreat. Eisenhower later wrote in his war memoirs that while the two men often disagreed on tactics in private, Churchill “would never show pessimism or hesitancy in public”.
The 79-year-old Churchill intended to stay at the British Embassy during his 1954 trip to Washington, but, mindful of his increasing frailty, Eisenhower sent him a note: “Am desirous that you stay with me…at the White House”. Vice President Richard Nixon headed the welcome party that greeted Churchill on his arrival in Washington. He would later recall the thrill of meeting the man he once described as a “larger-than-life legend”.
Churchill resigned as Prime Minister in April 1955 but made one final private visit to the White House four years later as Eisenhower’s guest. Back in the 1890s, it used to take a week or longer to travel to the States by steamship. Now he flew by jumbo jet and during the course of this particular visit took a helicopter to Eisenhower’s farm in Gettysburg, flying over the famous Civil War battlefield along the way.
Britain’s elder statesman made one final trip to the States in 1961. Churchill had briefly met John F. Kennedy in his pre-presidential days, whilst holidaying in the South of France in 1958. However, ill health now prevented him from flying to Washington to meet the new President, much to the disappointment of Kennedy, who spoke frequently of his admiration for the inspirational Churchill’s oratory and leadership skills.
Sir Winston Churchill passed away in January 1965, aged 90, two years after being granted honorary American citizenship. A proud Churchill had watched from home via a special video link as his son Randolph accepted this rare honor on his behalf from President Kennedy at a special ceremony held in the Rose Garden of the White House. This marked a fitting finale to Churchill’s enduring connection with those who had held the office of US President during his long and distinguished career.
