The Weekly Winston: “Gigantic Boiler” Edition

What collection of WSC greatest hits would be complete without the passage from The Grand Alliance (volume 3 of his World War II memoirs) about the character of the United States:

Silly people—and there are many, not only in enemy countries—might discount the force of the United States.  Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united.  They would fool around at a distance.  They would never come to grips.  They would never stand the blood-letting.  Their democracy and system of recurrent elections would paralyze their war effort.  They would be just a vague blur on the horizon to friend or foe.  Now we should see the weakness of this numerous but remote, wealthy, and talkative people.  But I had 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 the fire is ignited under it there is no limit to the power it can generate.”

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