When Mrs. Roosevelt was in London during World War II, she had dinner with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his wife and soon got into an argument with Churchill about Spain. When she said she thought the United States and Britain should have done something to help the Loyalists, who were anti-fascist, during the Spanish Civil War, Churchill said he had been for the Franco government until Germany and Italy intervened on the side of the Franco fascists. But he also told Mrs. Roosevelt that the Spanish Loyalists had come under control of the Stalinists and if they had won, people like Mrs. Roosevelt and himself would have been the first to lose their heads.
When Mrs. Roosevelt said that losing heads was unimportant when it came to big issues, Churchill exclaimed: “I don’t want you to lose your head and neither do I want to lose mine.”
At this point, Mrs. Churchill leaned across the table and said, “I think perhaps Mrs. Roosevelt is right.”
”I have held certain beliefs for sixty years,” said Churchill, quite annoyed, “and I am not going to change now.”
Mrs. Churchill got up at once and the dinner – and the argument – was over.
Source:
Boller, Paul F. "Eleanor Roosevelt." Presidential Wives: An Anecdotal History. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. 309. Print.
Original Source Listed:
This I Remember, 275.
Further Reading:
World War II / Second World War / WWII / WW2
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG OM CH TD PC DL FRS RA
Clementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, GBE, CStJ née Hozier
Bando republican (Republican Faction) / Loyalist Faction
Guerra Civil Española (Spanish Civil War) / Guerra Civil (The Civil War) / La Guerra (The War)
Bando nacional (Nationalist Faction) / Bando sublevado (Rebel Faction)
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