Madam, – In 1950 the old imperialist campaigned in the election under a pledge of restoring Britain to her true place in the world – at the head of an empire on which the sun never sets.
That sentiment is now just dottily obsolete, but other right-wing prejudices held by Winston Churchill have left a graver legacy.
His constant and passionate recommendation of British intervention on the side of the tsarists launched the West’s subsequent attempts to destroy communism, and duly produced the justifiable Russian suspicion of Western intentions which operates today.
One utterly disgraceful episode arising from Churchill’s and the establishment’s hatred of communism was the use of allied troops before the end of the war to crush the Greek communists who had fought vigorously against the Germans and to return Greece to its unlovely monarchy. Stalin connived at this policy on the understanding he would get a free hand in Eastern Europe.
We hear a lot about Stalin and Poland these days; not so much about Churchill and Greece. – Yours, etc,