When the teachers are in the room talking about the 'yanks', one says something like, 'I'll never forgive them for not attending Churchill's funeral ... they didn't even send the VP'
I know churchill was out of office when he died in the 60's but I would think his funeral should have been well represented by the US ... Does anyone know who led the US delegation? If it wasn't Johnson or Humphry, why not?
" Three can keep a secret, if two are dead "
I did a little research, and could only find some passing remarks about the "US representatives."
One thing I didn't know or remember about Churchill: His mother was an American. Interesting detail, eh?
BTW, this is a bit off-topic, but if you want to read some moving personal accounts of Churchill's procession, take a look at this BBC page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/january/24/newsid_2692000/2692293.stm
Yeah, we were watching this yesterday and found that difficult to swallow as well. But hey, if it's true, it's true, and the teachers were right - it is incredibly lame!
I asked the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
what's even more inconcievable is Churchill was voted out of office after carrying the British through WW II.
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Thank you for the very informative response ... It certainly puts a different light on things ... The one line in the movie made it appear to be a 'snub' when it all came down to timing .
" Three can keep a secret, if two are dead "
I may have read somewhere that LBJ was miffed that Churchill had not attended JFK's funeral. I don't know what shape Churchill was at the time.
Sam Tomaino
What's inconceivable is the good press Churchill gets despite being a bigot and liar who tarnished the name of good men to cover up his country being unprepared for WW2.
He lied to his Parliament and he lied to his King. He believed innocent human beings needed to be sacrificed to cater to his own agenda.
Had he been in charge we'd have been prepared. He was Britain's greatest leader.
shareNot to the people up in the Northeast of England where he was despised by many because he was a Tory.Even during the war years he was not held in the highest of regard and was seen as a warmonger.
shareWC died in 1965... only 2 years before this movie was made. I haven't been able to see if anyone from the US was in attendance but from what I can tell... everyone and their mother was there! Seriously, over 100 of GB's officials were there, and over 321,000 people came to give their final respects.
It was Johnson in office and he was probably still reeling from getting the office (JFK's death in 1963) He also had to deal with massive riots all over the country and it was right smack dab in the middle of our civil rights movement.
WC was very good friends with FDR (USA president during WWII) and guess who didn't attend his funeral... his good friend WC! (although his plane was warming up -- whatever the heck that means!)
WC quoting Josef Stalin (positively!) might have had something to do with it. FDR had lost some respect for WC when he started calling Josef "Uncle Joe" (?!)
This question is in Wikianswers and it has yet to be answered. you gotta wonder if the person who posted it in wiki had heard about it from TSWL and nowhere else...
You're laborers, you're supposed to be laboring! That's what you get for not having an education!!
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Actually, I doubt WSC would have been in fine mental fettle to attend JFK's obsequies since it was said that he was "gaga" in his declining years...(he was a man of bibulous habits unlike the abstemious veggie, Adolf Hilter-:).
shareAfter his inauguration, Barack Obama has sent Sir Winston Churchill packing.
A bust of the former prime minister once voted the greatest Briton in history, which was loaned to George W Bush from the Government's art collection after the September 11 attacks, has now been formally handed back.
The bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds if it were ever sold on the open market, enjoyed pride of place in the Oval Office during President Bush's tenure.
But when British officials offered to let Mr Obama to hang onto the bust for a further four years, the White House said: "Thanks, but no thanks."
Barack Obama at his best.
Well, maybe Brits are not into paying homage to busts.
Obama is not Reagan or Bush, who were pathetic disgraces as Presidents.
Its an issue of class,of which Obama has none. That bust was a gift to a sitting American president, and if Obama didn't like looking at it because of some old Kenyan vs. British issue, he could have moved it where he didn't have to see it. Obama is the worst president since Jimmy Carter, he will destroy this country in the next four years. What a shame. This is not the US I grew up in, its a becoming a European style socialist dictatorship. God help us from this man and his communist racist minions.
shareBull-dust!! The likes of Bush and his ilk are not fit to tie Obama's shoe laces!!
sharesad
shareJohnson did not attend Churchill's funeral because he could not forgive Churchill for not attending Franklin D Roosevelt's funeral.
shareWow, I see quite a lot of bovine droppings in some of these replies.
The US was represented at Sir Winston's funeral by Chief Justice Warren and Secretary of State Rusk. Former President and Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower attended as a private citizen, invited by the Churchill family.
There was discussion at the time about why President Johnson, who was recovering from an illness, did not send newly inaugurated (about a week before) Vice President Humphrey, about which LBJ later expressed some misgivings. One of the factors apparently was that the nation was still a little jittery about Presidential succession and health, just 14 months after the national trauma of the Kennedy assassination. (From Nov. 22, 1963 until Jan 20, 1965, the US did not have a vice president; the Speaker of the House was first in line had LBJ died during that period.) Sending the VP abroad when the President was unwell was not a decision to be made lightly.
I've never heard serious discussion of Churchill being faulted by US leaders for his inability to attend the funerals of either President Roosevelt (there was a world war yet raging and while such a trans-Atlantic voyage was not easily taken on a moment's notice, Churchill considered it before deciding to remain in the UK), or President Kennedy (Churchill was 88 and infirm by then).
I have seen enough to know I have seen too much. -- ALOTOshare
It should also be noted that Churchill wasn't head of State - sending the American president would be highly unusual, and as you say, former American presidents did attend in a personal capacity.
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