It’s an antidote to the reigning conceits, self-deceptions, half-truths and clichés of our day. He called for rearmament before both world wars against the hopes and convictions of the pacifists and appeasers in power. Being at the center of the establishment is what allowed him to be indifferent to — and better than — it. Churchill was a patriot, a paternalist, a product of his time — and, by those standards, a progressive. One of the alleged crimes for which Churchill is now blamed is the perpetration of a “genocide” in India after a cyclone-caused famine in 1943.

Source: New York Times December 15, 2018 02:26 UTC