NWC 2025 INS Lecture - Dr. John Maurer: Churchill and America

Video Description

This Issues in National Security Lecture took place on May 27, 2025. The views presented by the faculty or other guest speakers do not reflect official positions of the Naval War College, DON or DOD. Synopsis: In this lecture, Professor Maurer will examine Winston Churchill’s lifelong connection to the United States. Churchill’s mother Jennie Jerome was born in Brooklyn, and he was proud of his American heritage. In 1895, at the age of twenty-one, he made the first of sixteen visits to the United States. “What an extraordinary people the Americans are!” he wrote to his mother. “This is a very great country,” he wrote to his brother Jack. “Everything is eminently practical.” Throughout the seventy years of his adult life, he urged close cooperation between Great Britain and the United States in world affairs. He viewed the United States as the decisive force in determining the outcome of the world wars that marked the history of the early twentieth century. Today, Churchill is best remembered for his role in working with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to forge the Grand Alliance that won the Second World War. During the early years of the Cold War, Churchill called for Britain and the United States to continue working together to stop the spread of Soviet Russia’s imperial ambitions while avoiding a third world war. He counselled his colleagues in government: “Never be separated from the Americans.” In recognition of his contribution to promoting a close partnership between the two countries in war and in peace, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation in 1963 making Churchill an honorary citizen of the United States. The proclamation states that Sir Winston Churchill had been “throughout his life a firm and steadfast friend of the American people and the American Nation.” The story of Churchill’s life and his troubled times can offer insights for understanding the great-power rivalries and wars of our own times. Speaker bio: Professor John H. Maurer is the Alfred Thayer Mahan Professor of Sea Power and Grand Strategy and served as the Chair of the Strategy and Policy Department. His most recent book is the edited volume, The Road to Pearl Harbor: Great Power War in Asia and the Pacific. At the College, he teaches a course on Winston Churchill and the history of the two world wars. In recognition of his contribution to professional military education, he has received the U.S. Navy’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award and Superior Civilian Service Award. INS Certificate: Certificates of Participation can be provided to viewers who have seen 70 percent (%) of the lectures offered this season. For eligibility, lectures could have been attended in person, watched via Zoom, or watched when the lectures are posted to YouTube. You can certify that you have viewed at least 70% (7 of the 10) INS lectures by filling out the following form: https://forms.office.com/r/GPBBg0cN9L