Churchill's words offer strength to America

Yesterday, many people made comparisons to Pearl Harbor. Most Americans, I am sure, understand the significance of that event; but perhaps not as well the supreme impact it had on the world, on the sureness of those who would prove to know us best. Here are the thoughts of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from his History of the Second World War:

" ... But now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death ... Silly people - and there were many, not only in enemy countries - might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never come to grips. They would never stand blood-letting ... But I had studied the American Civil War, fought out to the last desperate inch. American blood flowed in my veins. I thought of a remark which Edward Grey had made to me more than 30 years before - that the United States is like 'a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate.' Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept of the saved and thankful." - Winston Churchill, The Grand Alliance, p.607

If the attack yesterday on New York and Washington is determined to have been committed by a foreign enemy, then that enemy has made a grave miscalculation. For they have not broken our will, but 'lighted' our resolve. Beyond the misfortune that events have taken, at least, at least we have the confidence of history.

Andrew Murray

Sophomore, Schools of Engineering

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