Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood With Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour

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Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood With Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour Page 52

by Lynne Olson


  “sad and discreet”: Ibid.

  “I want our programs”: R. Franklin Smith, p. 8.

  “Ed’s true”: Ibid., p. 50.

  “Well, brothers”: Sperber, p. 138.

  “one of the major neutrals”: Tom Hickman, What Did You Do in the War, Auntie? (London: BBC Books, 1995), p. 30.

  “The BBC”: Ibid., p. 205.

  “We were giving”: Sperber, p. 181.

  “Everyone regarded”: R. Franklin Smith, p. 51.

  “As far as I”: Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud, A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003), p. 93.

  “Everyone is going”: Ibid., p. 94.

  “We decided”: Janet Murrow to parents, May 13, 1940, Murrow papers, Mount Holyoke.

  “It just isn’t”: Janet Murrow to parents, June 11, 1940, Murrow papers, Mount Holyoke.

  “a man of”: “Quentin Reynolds Is Dead at 62,” New York Times, March 18, 1965.

  “Never before”: Janet Murrow to parents, June 23, 1940, Murrow papers, Mount Holyoke.

  “vultures and jackals”: Harry Watt, Don’t Look at the Camera (London: Paul Elek, 1974), p. 134.

  “Here lie”: Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson, The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996), p. 88.

  “London is burning”: Sperber, p. 167.

  “as continually alive”: Charles Ritchie, The Siren Years: A Canadian Diplomat Abroad, 1937–1945 (Toronto: Macmillan, 1974), p. 65.

  “You can’t do this”: Eric Sevareid notes on Blitz, Sevareid papers, LC.

  “Like everyone else”: Robertson, p. 129.

  “the same luxury”: Ernie Pyle, Ernie Pyle in England (New York: McBride, 1941), pp. 22–23.

  “messenger from hell”: Sperber, p. 172

  “shaken to the core”: R. Franklin Smith, p. 38.

  “Words are such puny”: Murrow broadcast, Sept. 14, 1940, National Archives.

  “He made everything”: R. Franklin Smith, p. 94

  “spoken word”: Ibid., p. 84.

  “looking like broken”: Sperber, p. 173.

  “cold, choking fog”: Murrow broadcast, Dec. 2, 1940, National Archives.

  “They’re working”: Persico, Edward R. Murrow, p. 174.

  “the little people”: Murrow broadcast, Aug. 18, 1940, National Archives.

  “unsung heroes”: Ibid.

  “Do you think”: Persico, Edward R. Murrow, p. 178.

  “This is what”: R. Franklin Smith, p. 100.

  “Are you”: Briggs, p. 295.

  “I’ve seen some”: Sperber, p. 169

  “Everyone was red-eyed”: Robertson, p. 126.

  “You walk through”: Quentin Reynolds, A London Diary (New York: Random House, 1941), p. 65.

  “The city”: Robertson, p. 131

  “It was like”: Ibid., pp. 182–83.

  “stiff dowagers”: Eric Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream (New York: Atheneum, 1976), p. 176.

  “American stranger”: Ibid.

  “showed the world”: Ibid., p. 166.

  “They are extremely”: Philip Seib, Broadcasts from the Blitz: How Edward R. Murrow Helped Lead America into War (Washington: Potomac Books, 2006), p. 65.

  “bellowed out”: Watt, p. 141.

  “I am a neutral”: Nicholas Cull, Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign Against American “Neutrality” in World War II (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 103.

  “a belief”: Watt, p. 142.

  “It must have been”: Ibid.

  “a good child”: Cloud and Olson, p. 58.

  “He made no pretense”: R. Franklin Smith, p. 117.

  “I have no desire”: Seib, p. 109.

  “except where”: Ibid, p. 127.

  “a thousand years”: Ibid., p. 108.

  “He wanted”: R. Franklin Smith, p. 109.

  “Perhaps you can”: Murrow broadcast, Sept. 30, 1940, NA.

  “Murrow and his colleagues”: R. Franklin Smith, p. 107.

  “Every shelter”: Janet Murrow to parents, Oct. 22, 1940, Murrow papers, Mount Holyoke.

  “disembodied”: Angus Calder, The People’s War: Britain, 1939–1945 (New York: Pantheon, 1969), p. 173.

  “He looked like”: Persico, Edward R. Murrow, p. 178.

  “Sometimes he seemed”: Ibid., p. 184.

  “He internalizes”: “This Is Murrow,” Time, Sept. 30, 1957

  “the windows”: R. Franklin Smith, p. 101

  “You will have no”: Kendrick, p. 225.

  CHAPTER 3: THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME

  “malefactors of great wealth”: Christopher Ogden, Life of the Party: The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994), p. 112.

  “was no good”: Rudy Abramson, Spanning the Century: The Life of W. Averell Harriman (New York: William Morrow, 1992), p. 271.

  “He was good-looking”: Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (New York: Touchstone, 1986), p. 121.

  “Confidentially, Franklin”: Ibid., p. 188.

  “Are we willing”: Harriman speech transcript, Feb. 14, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “recommend everything”: W. Averell Harriman and Elie Abel, Special Envoy to Churchill and Stalin, 1941–1946 (New York: Random House, 1975), p. 19.

  “was a bit foggy”: Harriman memo, March 18, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “as soon as”: Abramson, p. 277.

  “Mr. President”: Roosevelt press conference transcript, Feb. 18, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “a never-ending”: Abramson, p. 65.

  “had no fun”: Sally Bedell Smith, Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), p. 79.

  “needed reinforcement”: Abramson, p. 16.

  “He went into”: Isaacson and Thomas, p. 42

  “trying to match”: Abramson, p. 137.

  “Averell’s a power”: E. J. Kahn, “Profiles: Plenipotentiary—1,” New Yorker, May 3, 1952.

  “Averell was regarded”: Abramson, p. 127

  “Intellectually, I could reason”: Harriman and Abel, p. 6.

  “Anyone who says”: Abramson, p. 273.

  “There is a sense”: Harriman to Harry Hopkins, June 6, 1940, Harriman papers, LC.

  “spent more”: Henry H. Adams, Harry Hopkins: A Biography (New York: Putnam’s, 1977), p. 22.

  “was bound”: Sherwood, p. 159

  “Harry never had”: Ibid., p. 29.

  “a tongue”: Ibid., p. 80.

  “he would snarl”: Adams, p. 52.

  “He was pleased”: Sherwood, p. 6

  “with all the vigor”: Adams, p. 152.

  “was always willing”: “Ave and the Magic Mountain,” Time, Nov. 14, 1955.

  “I suppose Churchill”: Sherwood, p. 232

  “the personal representative”: Ibid., p. 247.

  “that extraordinary man”: Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), pp. 20–21.

  “Churchill is the gov’t”: Sherwood, p. 243

  “It seemed to me”: Meacham, p. 84

  “I suppose you wish”: Adams, p. 207.

  “a completely changed man”: Sherwood, p. 268

  “This island needs”: Ibid., p. 260.

  “Let me carry”: Adams, p. 199.

  “might have something”: Abramson, p. 276.

  “Here in Washington”: James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970), p. 51.

  “so orderly”: Reston, p. 98.

  “a pleasant place”: Ibid., p. 101.

  “leafy, dreaming”: Sevareid, p. 193.

  “a town”: David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), p. xiv.

  “It is difficult”: Sherwood, p. 161.

  “The production program”: Vincent Sheean to Murrow, Dec. 26, 1940, Murrow
papers, Mount Holyoke.

  “repel raids”: D’Este, p. 259.

  “We are so short”: Harriman memo, March 11, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “We can’t take”: Ibid.

  “was very much disturbed”: James Leutze, ed., The London Journal of General Raymond E. Lee, 1940–1941 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1971), p. 175

  “Without an understanding”: Harriman memo, March 11, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “as a sort”: Dimbleby and Reynolds, p. 145.

  “I left feeling”: Harriman memo, March 11, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “He has talked to me”: Harriman to Marie Harriman, March 30, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “Nothing will”: Harriman and Abel, p. 22.

  “became little short”: John Colville, Footprints in Time: Memories (London: Century, 1985), p. 154

  “made four pertinent”: Ibid.

  “Quite early”: Winant, A Letter from Grosvenor Square, p. 68

  “We had an”: Ibid., p. 67.

  “complete confidence”: Harriman to FDR, April 10, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “one of the world’s worst”: Theodore Achilles interview, Bellush papers, FDRL.

  “You might like”: Murrow to Chet Williams, May 15, 1941, Janet Murrow pa pers, Mount Holyoke.

  “Each of the ministers”: Harriman and Abel, p. 23.

  “I am accepted”: Harriman to Union Pacific president, May 30, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “I am with”: Harriman to Marie Harriman, May 6, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “I was very excited”: Harriman to Herbert Feis, undated, Harriman papers, LC.

  “a somewhat”: Robert Meiklejohn to Mr. Wooley, May 21, 1941, Harriman pa pers, LC.

  “that gilded refuge”: Sally Bedell Smith, Reflected Glory, p. 77.

  “a modern wartime Babylon”: Robert Rhodes James, ed., Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon (London: Phoenix, 1997), p. 272.

  “a fortress”: Leutze, ed., p. 61.

  “I’ve never seen”: Ibid.

  “I never felt easy”: Robertson, p. 137.

  “My mail”: Harriman to Marie Harriman, March 30, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “wear the aspect”: Gilbert, Finest Hour, p. 972

  “As far as I”: Ibid., p. 1040.

  “How the English”: Ritchie, p. 100.

  CHAPTER 4: “HE SEEMS TO GET CONFIDENCE IN HAVING US AROUND”

  “that ghastly, tired”: Philip Ziegler, London at War, 1939–1945 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), p. 177.

  “I’m really scared”: Sperber, p. 192.

  “It’s the office”: Janet Murrow diary, April 16, 1941, Murrow papers, Mount Holyoke.

  “many of our”: Ibid.

  “Now that I”: Theodore Achilles interview, Bellush papers, FDRL.

  “based in human terms”: Ibid.

  “I see no”: Janet Murrow to mother, April 18, 1941, Murrow papers, Mount Holyoke.

  “His personality”: Virginia Cowles interview, Bellush papers, FDRL.

  “typified to the British”: Sir Arthur Salter interview, Bellush papers, FDRL.

  “He seems”: Harriman to FDR, April 10, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “devastation such”: Colville, The Fringes of Power, p. 373.

  “The news”: Winant to FDR, April 10, 1941, Winant/State Department files, National Archives.

  “He reviews”: Harriman to FDR, April 11, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “I am sorry”: Walter Thompson, Assignment: Churchill (New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1955), p. 216.

  “They had been”: Harriman to FDR, April 11, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “seemed to underline”: Winant, A Letter from Grosvenor Square, p. 48.

  “They have such”: Harriman to FDR, April 11, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “all this pain”: Clementine Churchill to Harriman, April 15, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “The stench”: Calder, p. 185.

  “It is the spirit”: Harriman to president of Union Pacific, May 30, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “The women are”: Harriman to Marie Harriman, April 17, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “What the women”: Agar, p. 202.

  “magnificent body”: Norman Longmate, The Home Front: An Anthology of Personal Experience, 1938–1945 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1981), p. 75

  “living in a nightmare”: Sherwood, p. 276.

  “There is no question”: Leutze, ed., p. 243.

  “You won’t find”: Vincent Sheean, Between the Thunder and the Sun (New York: Random House, 1943), p. 296.

  “is worried”: Harold Nicolson, The War Years, 1939–1945 (New York: Atheneum, 1967), p. 164.

  “The fatigue”: Winant, A Letter from Grosvenor Square, p. 39

  “All that the country”: Nicolson, p. 162.

  “Serious injury”: Sherwood, p. 275.

  “a disaster”: Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance, p. 190.

  “Evacuation going”: Lash, Roosevelt and Churchill, p. 301.

  “discouragement and disheartenment”: Ibid., p. 312

  “I feel”: Gilbert, Finest Hour, p. 1083.

  “Mr. President”: Ibid., p. 1078.

  “The whole thing”: Leutze, ed., p. 244.

  “The situation is”: Lash, Roosevelt and Churchill, p. 298

  “We cannot allow”: Ibid., p. 304.

  “The President is waiting”: William Bullitt to Harriman, April 29, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “I told Hopkins”: Lash, Roosevelt and Churchill, p. 321

  “I think”: Adams, p. 223

  “I do know”: Ibid., p. 224.

  “I cautioned him”: Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), p. 24.

  “How much”: Jean Edward Smith, p. 492.

  “The truth was”: Frances Perkins Oral History, Columbia University.

  “The people as a whole”: Sperber, p. 131

  “Why don’t you”: Belle Roosevelt, speech at Hobart and Smith College, June 1945, Winant papers, FDRL.

  “World opinion”: Lash, Roosevelt and Churchill, p. 329

  “how he had to fight”: Ibid., p. 342.

  “shocking to see”: Leutze, ed., p. 287.

  “There is still too much”: Ibid., p. 275.

  “It is impossible”: Harriman to William Bullitt, May 21, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “using warships”: Harriman to Marie Harriman, May 6, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “England’s strength”: Harriman to FDR, April 10, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “greatly encouraged”: Gilbert, Finest Hour, p. 1036.

  “two men”: Colville, Footprints in Time, p. 152

  “What America requires”: Ibid.

  “As an American”: Winant, A Letter from Grosvenor Square, p. 40.

  “We have all slept”: “Winant Indicates He Backs Convoys,” New York Times, May 15, 1941, Winant papers, FDRL.

  “We have made”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 5: MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY

  “simply been”: Mary Soames, Clementine Churchill: The Biography of a Marriage (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), p. 343.

  “had less schedule”: Thompson, p. 127.

  “loved an audience”: Roy Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001), p. 639.

  “as much for”: Colville, Footprints in Time, p. 153.

  “I want to thank you”: Mary Churchill to Harriman, May 13, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “what a wonderful”: Harriman memo, May 5–9, 1943, Harriman papers, LC.

  “the most important”: Sally Bedell Smith, Reflected Glory, p. 86.

  “was a hick from America”: Pamela Harriman interview with Christopher Ogden, Pamela Harriman papers, LC.

  “absolutely marvelous looking”: Abramson, p. 312.

  “I would get trapped”: Pamela Harriman interview with Christopher Ogden, Pamela Harriman
papers, LC.

  “as cold and calculated”: Sally Bedell Smith, Reflected Glory, p. 76.

  “could be quite”: Mary Soames, “Father Always Came First, Second and Third,” Finest Hour, Autumn 2002.

  “One of the most”: Colville, The Fringes of Power, p. 177

  “There was a diffused”: Ziegler, p. 169. 100

  “The normal barriers”: Sally Bedell Smith, In All His Glory: The Life of William S. Paley (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), p. 217

  “It was a liberation”: Olson and Cloud, p. 178.

  “London was a Garden”: Mary Welsh Hemingway, How It Was (New York: Ballantine, 1976), p. 105.

  “Here I am”: Pamela Harriman interview with Christopher Ogden, Pamela Harriman papers, LC.

  “Last night”: Harriman to Marie Harriman, April 17, 1941, Harriman papers, LC.

  “intercepted glances”: Sally Bedell Smith, Reflected Glory, p. 87

  “microbe”: Soames, p. 351.

  “Some thought him evil”: Drew Middleton, Where Has Last July Gone? (New York: Quadrangle, 1973), p. 68.

  “took particular pleasure”: Ogden, p. 154

  “She passed everything”: Ibid., p. 123.

  “It was very”: Pamela Harriman interview with Christopher Ogden, Pamela Harriman papers, LC.

  “got a big”: Ibid., p. 127.

  “fearing stories”: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Journals, 1952–2000 (New York: Penguin, 2007), p. 343.

  “could have gone”: Pamela Harriman interview with Christopher Ogden, Pamela Harriman papers, LC.

  “We do not”: Sarah Churchill, A Thread in the Tapestry (London: Deutsch, 1967), p. 29.

  “You know”: Pamela Harriman interview with Christopher Ogden, Pamela Harriman papers, LC.

  “feel as if”: Felix Frankfurter interview, Bellush papers, FDRL.

  “A man of quiet”: Mary Soames, Clementine Churchill: The Biography of a Marriage (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), p. 390

  “gentle, dreamy”: Colville, The Fringes of Power, p. 773.

  “When Winant enters”: “A New Kind of Envoy to a New Kind of Britain,” New York Times, Feb. 16, 1941.

  “There was something”: Ethel M. Johnson, “The Mr. Winant I Knew,” South Atlantic Quarterly, January 1949, Eleanor Roosevelt Correspondence, FDRL.

  “quite lost”: James, ed., p. 297

  “one of the most charming”: Nicolson, p. 186

  “the superb”: Ibid, p. 198.

  “Other men”: Lord Moran, Churchill at War, 1940–45 (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2002), p. 151

 

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