Gore VIdal recounted a story of Roosevelt and Churchill in History of the National Security State—the book Assange held visibly as he was dragged out of the embassy to send a message—which sums up the relation between Europeans and Americans quite well:
- [Roosevelt] told Churchill at Yalta, he said, you know, “Now we’re winning, you know…
Gore VIdal recounted a story of Roosevelt and Churchill in History of the National Security State—the book Assange held visibly as he was dragged out of the embassy to send a message—which sums up the relation between Europeans and Americans quite well:
- [Roosevelt] told Churchill at Yalta, he said, you know, “Now we’re winning, you know, the war in Europe.” Pacific war was still going on. “But now that we’re winning it, you know that you’re going to have to give up India.” “Oh, yes, of course, we always knew that. And one day we’ll really give it up.” And he said, “No, no, no, you’re going to give it up right away. And France is going to give up Indochina. Sumatra and Java are going to be let go free by the Dutch.” And he said, “I don’t care what this does to European powers. I’m ending colonialism, because without a clean sweep, United States is meaningless.”
- [...] Roosevelt was a great statesman, and he knew a lot about geography, and these other jokers didn’t know it. And so it came to pass that Churchill had to give up India, grumbling all the way. At this famous lunch, a lot of witnesses there, Churchill apparently turned to him. He thought this man was his friend, but emperors have no friends. And he said, “What do you want me to do? Get on my hind legs like your little dog Fala, and beg?” The emperor said, “Yes.”
The British and the rest of Europeans have been America's little dogs ever since. It's hard to imagine what a centre of power Europe once was, but oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Gore VIdal recounted a story of Roosevelt and Churchill in History of the National Security State—the book Assange held visibly as he was dragged out of the embassy to send a message—which sums up the relation between Europeans and Americans quite well:
- [Roosevelt] told Churchill at Yalta, he said, you know, “Now we’re winning, you know, the war in Europe.” Pacific war was still going on. “But now that we’re winning it, you know that you’re going to have to give up India.” “Oh, yes, of course, we always knew that. And one day we’ll really give it up.” And he said, “No, no, no, you’re going to give it up right away. And France is going to give up Indochina. Sumatra and Java are going to be let go free by the Dutch.” And he said, “I don’t care what this does to European powers. I’m ending colonialism, because without a clean sweep, United States is meaningless.”
- [...] Roosevelt was a great statesman, and he knew a lot about geography, and these other jokers didn’t know it. And so it came to pass that Churchill had to give up India, grumbling all the way. At this famous lunch, a lot of witnesses there, Churchill apparently turned to him. He thought this man was his friend, but emperors have no friends. And he said, “What do you want me to do? Get on my hind legs like your little dog Fala, and beg?” The emperor said, “Yes.”
The British and the rest of Europeans have been America's little dogs ever since. It's hard to imagine what a centre of power Europe once was, but oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Well, once the war ended, Churchill wanted to renege on the promise of Indian independence.
And US support of France in Vietnam led to the United States' own fiasco in that part of the world.