Britain’s case for additional U. S. aid had been presented to the United States by the man who could do it best, Winston Churchill. The British prime minister addressed the houses of the U. S.congress jointly assembled. He spoke with faith and hope of the future of the British commonwealth and with the same dogged determination which characterized his public utterances and actions during the darkest days, for Britain, of World War II. But throughout his half hour address ran the theme of continued and greater unity between Britain and the United States. Early in his address Mr. Churchill said that he had come before congress and the American people “not for gold but for steel, not for favors but for equipment.” And yet the character of aid which Britain sorely needs from the United States inevitably involves billions of dollars of American money.
These billions may not go out on loan to Britain but they will go out in helping Britain sustain its military forces abroad and its economy at home. Mr. Churchill plainly hinted that additional armed aiS by the United States is needed by Britain and France in their own foreign commitments and present foreign tension points. These include, for France, French Intlo-Chi-na; and for Britain, Egypt and possibly Iran. The prime minister skillfully suggested that, as Britain has sent military forces to Korea to reinforce Americans in a foreign commitment which he implied was initiated by the United States, so the U.S. should send armed forces to help the British and the French in their own foreign commitments. He referred to these suggested detachments as “token forces.” Yet even a small token force sent by the United States to French Indo-China, or Egypt, must inevitably involve a large expenditure immediately and a probable continuing and larger expenditure later.
Winston Churchill, once before speaking to a great audience, said; “I did not become the king’s first minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British empire.” And he did not come to America to “sell’ the British empire now the British commonwealth at any cheap price. He hoped to end a great career, one of the greatest in English history by picking up the shattered pieces and, skillfully playing on both the sympathies and the sound sense of the American people, to commit the U.S. even more firmly to the role of economic big brother and military aide.
Here is that address, given on January 17, 1952 from a rather muddy and distant broadcast via the ABC Radio Network.
