Transcript
Announcer (0:04)
Every week, Hillsdale College President Larry Arne joins Hugh Hewitt to discuss great books, great men and great ideas. This is Hillsdale Dialogues, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More episodes at podcast. Hillsdale. Edu or wherever you find your audio.
Hugh Hewitt (0:29)
Morning Glory and Evening Grace America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. This is the Hillsdale Dialogue. That music signifies the last broadcast hour of the week, which is always spent with either Dr. Larry Arn or one of his colleagues at Hillsdale College. All things Hillsdale found at hillsdale. Edu we have been spending most of this year in and out of the first volume of Winston Churchill's World War II memoirs, the Gathering Storm. And when last we spoke about this two weeks ago, Dr. Arne Munich had happened and the disaster had befallen. And now we are into the chapter entitled Munich Winter as the Czechs bow to the inevitable. And I find myself again and again discovering things I did not know. I did not know that the Poles acted dishonorably at that time. Were you aware of that?
Dr. Larry Arne (1:20)
Yeah, I've read this book and some others. You know, it's a mess, right? Britain and France are the powers that can resist Germany. And it would prove later that the Soviet Union was such power, too. But they soon they're about to get into cahoots with Germany for a while. And so Britain and France really caused it, enabled Hitler to take Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia had the means to resist, not the sufficient means, but serious means. And so they. But their allies went and made a deal more or less without talking to them. And so now they're broken, right? Well, Hungary and Poland, the two nations that offended the most in this thing, seized territory from Czechoslovakia, the Slovaks, Czechoslovak, you know, it's now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And they're friendly, but in those days there was friction between them. And the Slovaks helped Hitler some. And then he takes the place over and it's, you know, there's a feast on, right? There's some territory to take. And so Poland took some and Hungary took some and they paid for it later, big time. And Hitler didn't mind it a bit because he was going to eventually take both those places and was probably thinking of it at the time.
Hugh Hewitt (3:03)
Now, the Churchill writes this in 1948, and about the polls, he writes, all our hearts, the Iron Curtain has come down. Poland is under the boot of Joseph Stalin. And Churchill writes in 1948, all our hearts are with the Polish people in their new subjugation. And we are sure that we will never seek in vain for their perennial impulse to strike against tyranny and to suffer with the invincible fortitude all the agonies which befall them. We look forward to the dawn. Now, he writes that in 1948, you know the record as well as anyone. Was he optimistic about that?
