Here. If youre not a member pick up a brochure to see the wonderful exhibitions and programs we have coming up. A brochure but tonights program is part of the distinguished Speaker Series which is the heart of our Public Program so thanks for all love the support. [applause] [applause] your product right away but he has done so much for us and we are so thrilled. I would also like to recognize and thank our executive committee chair, rick and trustees very, susan, glen, joel, and david and all her germans counsel with us this evening for all their wonderful support as well. Lets giveel them a big hand alo cut back program tonight will last an hour, include a q a session and you should have received a card with a pencil and if not, our Staff Members will be coming up and down the aisle to do a card to write your question on it later on in the program they were collected and our speaker, michael will be happy to answer them. His book aloneto will be in our museum store in he will be signing the book in our museum store as well so please join michael after the program for a book signing. We are thrilled to welcome micah back to the New York Historical society. He is editor in chief emeritus of Simon Schuster and began his career as an assistant editor over nearly five decades he hashe worked with a wide rane of authors including president s carter, reagan, nixon, Charles De Gaulle, henry kissinger, david mccullough, Tennessee Williams and last but not least, among the many, laurence olivier. Which he could do a full program on laurence olivier. He is the author of several books including his latest turtle, dunkirk, defeat into victory which is why were all here tonight. Before i begin i would like to ask if you have a cell phone or electronic paper, device, please turn it off and now, please join me in welcoming the wonderful, michael. [applause] good evening. I want to make sure that i am not the one whose cell phone rings. [laughter] i am so used to speaking here when it proceeded to fill that i find myself constantly looking up at the screen expecting that something will happen there but nothing is. Why dunkirk now im sure you are wondering, as i do. I saw Christopher Nolans stunning film, dunkirk, at three in the afternoon on a weekday in new york, a small town between [inaudible] expecting the theater to be empty. Instead it was packed and in fact, i was lucky to have arrived earlier than i intended. Other by the time the picture started every seat was taken right down to the front row. There iss not a sound during the audience during the picture, no popcorn crackling or coughing and no one got up to go to the bathroom and the audience was totally absorbed. But it ended, to my astonishment, the whole audience rose to their feet to applaud, many with tears streaming down their face. Over a British Military calamity that place in 1940. In redhook, i said to myself, why . A small part of me also asked silently where the hell were you when we needed you in may 1940. But that is unfair. There hardly anyone in the audience except for myself had been alive in may 1940 and they would be foolish even churlish to blame america for not entering the war until japan bombed pearl harbor in december 1941, nearly a year and half later, forcing america into a war it was trying to avoid. Who, given a chance to stay out of that war would not have taken it . The british had not been eager to come to the defense of poland in september 1939, still left the front. After all it was only 40 years defeated germany and what was until 1939 socalled the great war. With casualties that today soar beyond our imagination, over 750,000 british were dead, 60000 british casualties on the first day of the first battle of the song in 1915. Over 1,350,004 dead in front and a war that cost a worldwide total of over 41 million lives and all of them apparently dead for nothing, zero, except the need to repeat the whole blood he thing a generation later. With more powerful weapons and facing an unapologetically fierce ideology that glorified war in germany. More sobering still it had taken the combined effort of france, the United Kingdom, russia, the United States, belgium, italy and japan feet germany last time around in 1914 and 1918. Even then by only the very thinnest of margins. Nobody in france or the United Kingdom could imaginene that the germans would be defeated by france and britain alone. Nor could anyone have imagined the chain of catastrophic evente that would drive the British Expeditionary force over a quarter of a million men back to a strip of beach 12 miles long it only a few hundred yards wide. How . Why did this happen is the subject of my book alone. From may 10th 1940 through june 10, 1940 just over three weeks hitler won the great victory he had dreamed of against france and lost the war. The phony war, phony between quotes for everyone between the poles and to a lesser degree the danes and the norwegians had dragged on from september 3rd 1939 to may 10th 1940 and lolling of britain france and even germanys allies italy, still the neutral, into the belief that the war right settled by negotiation and by old fashion diplomacy or even by a coup against hitler on the part of the german army or german conservative politicians. Rather than fought out to the bitter end as it had been in 1914, 1918. The chief problem of allies was boredom. Nearly half a million men of the British Expeditionary force, including a substantial contingent of the Royal Air Force, sat idle and crumbling in france. While over 3 million frenchmen sat in a mood of sullen resignation guarding the french frontier, almost one third of them in or behind the worldfamous maginot line which had been built in the 1930s at a cost of nearly 3 billion umfrench frank, an enormous sum for the day. The British Expeditionary forces or as it was called and still is, the pes represented the bulk of britains regulars and the irreplaceable soldiers who were needed to provide the backbones of constricted army as it was performed out and very slowly indeed as the french constitute complained and the french were overwhelmingly afraid as every ablebodied person was obliged to perform his military service for two years in your, followed by an annual period of training. It was intended to produce a vast army big enough to defeat or better yet german aggression. Keeping a large army immobilized for eight months is never a good idea and a defensive strategy easily general degenerated [inaudible]. As napoleon pointed out, the logical artman of a Defense Strategy is defeat. A large army composed of civilians in uniform all eager to get home is particularly prone to lose whatever edge possessed. This unfortunately is what happened to the army in the spring94 of 1940. The french army devoted its time to making it itself as comfortable as possible and the british army devoted itself to spit and polish with occasional entertainment proffered by the british equivalent of what would become in the United States the uso and occasional visits from members of the royal family and politicians. Neither army was wellequipped for modern warfare. The french contrary to president the assumptions had more and better tanks than the germans but they were relegated to infantry support, even though the relatively unknown Lieutenant ColonelCharles De Gaulle had published a Controversial Book in 1934 that advocated for tactics that the germans would use to defeat poland in france, the blitzkrieg. De gaulles book sold less than 1000 copies in france but so many, many times that number in germany where it was read aloud and became the bible of the officers would command the german army forces. As for antitank weapons rinses venerable 75 millimole in your field guns had been adopted in pt1897 with its flat trajectory and potential for rapid fire was more than capable of destroying any take the german army possessed one fired over open sites. But little thought had been given to using it in that role. Although the french army had more than 4500 of the beloved [inaudible] they were used for conventional infantry support instead. The rapid driven success against france is usually attributed to superior mechanization but this is a misleading picture. German artillery was first drawn in 1914 at it on. 1940 as a have been in 1914 and in advance on his feet, not in trucks. Complete commanders road ahead of their men on a horse and it was over half a million horses in the german army in 1940. Whatad the german army had hower was a strategy for using their tanks. The ubiquitous dive bomber and for the use of radios to coordinate combined air, armor and infantry attacks. Blitzkrieg was a state of mind intended to prevent repetition of the static warfare on the western front in the first world war. The allies were further hampered as they had been in 1914 by their determination to respect the neutrality of belgium unless or until the german violated them. By the commitment of the french army to its elaborate system of defense and as weeks turned into months it began to seem too many that hitler would never attack and of course, it became the aim of french and british policy not to provoke it into attacking the, the Royal Air Force limited to dropping propaganda over germany rather than pumps. When it was suggested to the british secretary of state for air sir Howard Kingsley would that the Royal Air Force should bomb the black forest which was then thought to contain ammunition dumps he replied indignantly in the negative saying why that is private property and the next thing you will be asking me is to bomb [inaudible]. So much for the aggressive mood in britain. On may 10 all that came to an brabrupt end, a debate on the house of commons on may 9 over the conduct of the campaign in norway led to the unexpected resignation of Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain on may 9. In circumstances of extraordinary prominent content, and tension into the even more remarkable political intrigue that brought Winston Churchill to power as minister instead of lord Halifax Chamberlain and most of the conservative party tand the king would have preferred to the socalled rogue elephant as churchills privatel secretary clinton called him. It has been marked by tremendous up and down and he was widely disgusted by his own party and by the royal family. He had been stubbornly wrong about the whole range of things including, but i not limited to, independence for india, finance, the gold standard, the strength to the french army and the merits of former king edward the eighth to wallis simpson. But from 1933 on he was right about the one and only thing that mattered, adolph hitler. Churchill had been against appeasing hitler. He had been in favor of rearming britain and constantly pointed out the dangers of nazi germany and the fact of germy rearmament with few people, in and out of the government, believed or wanted to hear. His had been the only voice of alarm, crying out alone in the wilderness and now he had been too bright. Everything he had foretold with such eloquence had come to pass. Poor people, poor people, he remarked as he returned from Buckingham Palace after having accepted the shield of office from. They trusted me and i can give them nothing but disaster for quite a long time. He left the guard to stump up the steps of the admiral where he was still living in tears. In fact, he would give them only 24 days later the most astonishing of good news that the British Force cut off and surrounded by the germans, by the rapid collapse of the netherlands, the sudden surrender of belgium and the retreat of the french army on its right had fought its way to dunkirk, the only channel remaining that the germans had not yet captured and from there had been ferried back to britain by 1100 ships of all kinds ranging from light foot vote and motor yacht captain by their own owners destroyers and pressure steamers and an astonishing grand total of 336,266 men. Enough to serve the core of the British Regular army and ensure their presence behind the pages of southern england if the germans ever attempted to invade. Wars are not won by evacuations, churchill warned the british people. But, in fact, this one was. Hitler with the british army within his grasp had delayed the final attack on dunkirk by two days and allow the enemy to escape. It was his first and biggest mistake of for and they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in abraham lincolns famous words of art general mcclellans failure to pursue the army after antietam. In the same speech, as the british soldiers evacuated from dunkirk for being returned to their regiments to baby clothes and we armed, churchill added the words which were to find a moment for all time even though large tracts of europe and many old and famous states have fallen into the grip of the gestapo and all the odious apparatus of a nasty rule we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in france. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. Shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the field and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. Even if, which i do not for a moment believe, this island or large part of it was subjugated and starting and our empire beyond the seas armed and guarded by a the british fleet would carry on the struggle on till gods good time the new world with all its power and might step forth to the rescue and liberation of the old. After he finished that broadcast the Prime Minister, once he was assured the transmitter had been turned off, turned to his aid and said and when they reach the beach we shall ship them over their heads with beer bottles because i dont know what ever we have to fight with. [laughter] the french had given a weary shrug to the news of the process for the evacuation of the bes. Their attitude was that [inaudible] which remarked that the moment the british general based scaffold in france the first thing he thought of was too quick route to the quickest channel but the british by contrast experienced an astonishing and sharper rise in morale. That was increased by the bustling energy of the new Prime Minister who not only warned of the battles ahead but they looked forward to them. Unlike chamberlains spirit was one of resignation churchill not only had an over flowing of demands and suggestions to meet thee new threat aggressively by land, by sea, by air but wider and more farreaching strategic goals. His spend their son, randolph, home on leave as an officer and recorded a brief conversation with his father about how he intended to fight the war. In randolphs words, i went up to my fathers bedroom to standing in front of it was shaving and oldfashioned razor and he had a beard and as usual he was hacking away. Sit down with your boy and read the papers probably finish dressing he told me. I did as i was told. After two or three minutes he half turned to me and said i think i see my way through and he resumed shaving. I was astounded and said to you mean that we could avoid defeat which seemed incredible to me or beat the masters which he seemed incredible. He slung his razor into the basin and swung around and said intently of course i mean we can beat them. I said im all for it and i dontdo see how you can do it. By this time he had dry his face and turned around he said to meet with great intensity we will fight on and i shall drag the United States in. [laughter] that was a year and a half away and seemed an even more remote possibility until the japanese bombed pearl harbor and brought about the one thing that could ensure an allied victory. The conversation with randolph captured the intensity and grasp of what was needed. The british would have to hang on some. Persistently, bombed, their army unable to defeat the germans in north africa or greece, depending on grits in the air force and the royal navy until such a time as history aided by careful diplomacy and bite churchills handling of about finallye brought the United States into the war. From september 1939, to decembel who courted roosevelt. After pearl harbor was the president who simply dominated the relationship and an expert to soothe the Prime Ministers ruffled feathers over many differences strategy and for aids. Despite churchills comment after pearl harbor that until then he had with the United States and i quote now that she is in the harem we shall talk to her quite differently. [laughter] churchills persona is very much at the center of this walk and there is much that we can learn from it. He said famously and it is better to job, jaw, jaw then to war, war, war. And that part of his nature of strategy and his thinking is seldom remembered. His wise advice to pursue negotiation of diplomacy so long as theres still hope remains true today. He also said speaking to the schoolboys at his old school whichol he lived as a child nevr given, never give and and never, never, never in nothing great or small, large or petty never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense and never yield to force. In the balance between these two wise statements buys the whole art of statesmanship and of character and of governing which saved britain in 1940 when she was alone and still marked our leadership at home and abroad today. The month of may 1940 across many illusions but it was a huge turning point for france defeated, the british army was rescued and Winston C