alphamale
12-18-2005, 08:42 PM
Winston Churchill, upon hearing of Pearl Harbor and that the US was entering the war on the side of the UK:
"Silly people -and there were many, not only in enemy countries -might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft...would never be united...would fool around at a distance...would never stand blood-letting. Their democracy...would paralyze their war effort...Now we would see the weakness of this numerous but remote, wealthy, and talkative people. But I have 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 thirty years before-that the United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once it is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate. Being satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful."
- Winston Churchill, The Second World War, vol III, The Grand Alliance, pp. 608-609
"Silly people -and there were many, not only in enemy countries -might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft...would never be united...would fool around at a distance...would never stand blood-letting. Their democracy...would paralyze their war effort...Now we would see the weakness of this numerous but remote, wealthy, and talkative people. But I have 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 thirty years before-that the United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once it is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate. Being satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful."
- Winston Churchill, The Second World War, vol III, The Grand Alliance, pp. 608-609