If there are, stand or wave, wherever you might be. And if we do not have any veterans, that is a shame. We would love to have them as always. Anybody working on the home front that is here . Theres somebody. Dont be bashful. I thought so. [applause] i saw them earlier. Holocaustors of the who might be here, i would like to recognize them as well. And veterans of any period of time wherever you are in the audience, would you please stand and raise your hand . Thank you. [applause] service. All for your and thank you again for being here. In the Early Morning hours of may 7, 1945, and a Little Red Schoolhouse in france in a Little Red Schoolhouse in france, world war ii officially came to an end in europe with the surrender of German Military alfred jodel. It is the anniversary date of ve day, the 72nd anniversary of that event, which celebrates the allied defeat of the nazis. 72 years ago, the west was facing a new beginning, a Herculean Task to ensure that another war would not break out again on the european continent. Aspects of world war ii that we celebrate and honor here, and explore at this museum, are the legacies of world war ii. One of them is to celebrate that eace has been maintained by sentryold rivals such as the germans, the french, and the british. This can be attributed in some degree to the formation of the European Union, which we are watching closely these days with brexit and the recent french president ial elections, which give us some hope that perhaps things are not moving in the wrong direction. But it also raising questions about the future of the European Union and whether america will continue to support nato, the eu, and the principles of freedom and democracy that we as thevanced since 1945 major champions of freedom in the world since world war ii. Iiajor legacy of world war and one that is very important to us today. We were thest week, hosts of an event here sponsored by the french consulate featuring the European Unions ambassador to the United States, david osullivan. Thiss speech, he spoke of union and the Key Partnership with United States as being a primary reason that another continental war has not eruptedted has not since 1945. Tonights speaker will be discussing just how those european leaders whose territory was overrun or threatened by germany came together in a britain during the very darkest days, forging bonds that would prove critical to securing a lasting peace after the end of world war ii. These nations, during those years, learned to live and Work Together and helped to advance the cause of freedom and the postwar world we have come to know and study. Now to lynne olson, who really needs little introduction. For those of you who are close followers of her books and even our programming here on previous occasions, but her books have been bestsellers. Very popular. Im sure many of you are here because you are avid readers of her works, those angry days, citizens of london, troublesome , and this one that you are going to hear about tonight, if you have not read it, you will get a chance to get a signed copy if you havent already and add to that list of wonderful books. Lynne olson was born in hawaii and graduated magna cum laude from university of arizona. Before becoming a fulltime author, she had other occupations. She was a journalist for 10 years first with the Associated Press, an international future writer in new york and a Foreign Correspondent for aps bureau and political reporter in washington. She left the Associated Press to join the Washington Bureau of the baltimore sun, where she covered National Politics and eventually the white house. Not only has she appeared here at the museum as a featured speaker of our churchill symposium, but she has also served as our lead consulting scholar for our permanent exhibit that will be opening in june, just about a month from now, entitled the arsenal democracy the hermann and george brown salute to the home front. It is an extraordinary exhibit on par with our road to berlin and road to tokyo exhibits, and lynne has been helping us for several years as we refine the story and narrative that you will find mesmerizing when you come after that permanent exhibit opens here in a month. She is also going to join us as one of our featured tour historians on board the 75th anniversary cruise to normandy in 2019. A long way off, but believe it or not, without any advertising, we already have about 1 3 of the ship sold out or committed. Lead will be with us for about 10 days laden will be lynne will be with us for about 10 days on that cruise, and if you have not signed up, better get your name on the list soon. Without further ado, please join me in welcoming back to Americas National World War Ii Museum lynne olson. [applause] lynne thank you. Thank you so much. Im doing a fairly extensive tour for this book, but there is one place i was so excited to come to and definitely wanted to come to. I must say that touring can get exhausting, but this is one place that i was absolutely determined to come to, the World War Ii Museum. I said before that i feel like this is my home away from home these days. I have been nick got a hold of me about two and a half years ago, i think, and asked about the possibility of my working on this, the redesign of this wonderful exhibit, and i said yes, and i did not realize how much fun i was going to have and how close i feel to this museum and to the people who work in it. I have never seen such commitment, skill, intelligence. It has just been a joy to come down here. My heart lifts every time i get off the plane in new orleans. I thank you for giving me that opportunity, and i want to thank everybody that i have worked with at this museum. You guys have one of the most wonderful museums in the world. It really is fantastic. [applause] and i mean every word of that. Ok, now im going to talk to you about my latest book called last hope island. Id like to take you back to june 1940, which was one of the darkest moments, if not the darkest moment, in british history. In a matter of months, nazi germany had conquered czechoslovakia, poland, norway, denmark, belgium, holland, luxembourg, and then, to everyones shock, the biggest prize of all, france. Great britain was now left as the only hope of freedom and democracy in all of europe. Yet, although britains future looked impossibly bleak at that point, many people who lived there were relieved and even exhilarated that they now stood alone. For much of its history, their country had done its best to stay clear of europe and its entanglements. As an island people, the british had never been comfortable with alliances, european or otherwise. One person who felt that way was king george vi, who wrote to his mother, queen mary, personally, i feel happier now that we have no allies to be polite to or to pamper. Winston churchill, the new british Prime Minister, was much more of a realist. He knew that if britain wanted allies or not, it desperately needed them. You have to remember that in 1940, obviously, the u. S. Was still neutral and was nowhere close to getting into the war. So what did churchill do . To the dismay of many officials in his government, he threw open britains doors to the political leaders and armed forces of occupied europe. On june 18, 1940, just before france fell, polands new Prime Minister and commanderinchief of the armed forces flew to london for an urgent meeting with churchill. He asked britain to help rescue the thousands of polish troops then fighting in france so they could continue the battle against germany. Churchill immediately replied, tell your army that we are their comrades in life and death. We shall conquer together or we shall die together. The Prime Minister then ordered his government to rescue as many foreign troops and airmen who were fighting in france as possible, regardless of their politics or nationality. Thanks to churchill, london quickly became the wartime refuge for the governments and military of six occupied European Countries czechoslovakia, poland, norway, holland, belgium, and luxembourg. The selfappointed representative of free france, general charles de gaulle, also fled there. Most of these exiled leaders had initially resisted leaving their country, feeling the same way about britain that it did about them. They were horrified by britains earlier refusal to confront hitler and come to their countries aid. That occurred under the leadership of Neville Chamberlain, churchills predecessor. At that point, what alternative did they have . Energized in the nick of time by churchill, britain was the only nation in europe Still Holding out against germany. Only there could the allied governments join forces and continue the fight. It is important to note that while churchills hospitality was unquestionably heartfelt, it involved a strong elements of national selfinterest. The british were about to experience the full fury of german power, would have to rely on those foreigners they had so disdained to help them survive in the desperate struggle to come. Last hope island focuses on this Unlikely Partnership between britain and occupied europe during the war. This is the first book ever to be written about the subject, believe it or not. One of the major points i make is that most of the countries did provide substantial support for britain within those dark days of 1940 and 1941 helped save it from defeat and in the latter part of the war , proved to be a great benefit to the overall allied victory. Let me give you just a few examples. First, almost 20 of the pilots who flew in the battle of britain were, in fact, from occupied europe, particularly from poland. In the opinion of numerous british officials, the contributions of the polish pilots, more than 100 in all, made the difference between victory and defeat in the battle. Second, most of you many of you, anyway have probably seen the movie imitation game, right . It was a big, hit movie a couple of years ago. According to conventional wisdom, alan turing and the code breaking operation was solely responsible for breaking the germans enigma code. In fact, britains code breaking success was due in large part to previous work by the french and, above all, by the poles. According to a top official, the ultra code breaking operation would never have gotten off the ground if we had not learned from the poles in the nick of time the details of the enigma machine and how it was used. Another one concerns norway. Norway is a Little Country its not a Little Country geographically. It is quite huge geographically, but in the beginning of the war, it only had 3 million in population, but it also has the fourth largest merchant marine fleet in the world and the most modern. The norwegians, at the beginning of the war, at least after they had been invaded, leased more than 1500 ships to the british, which helped them keep open supply lines to north america, vital supply lines in danger of being strangled by german summaries, so they were vitally important. You never hear about the norwegians and what they contributed. They contributed a great deal. I could go on and on, but one final contribution virtually all the intelligence about German Military operations in occupied europe came from european intelligence services, rather than britains famed mi6, which, nevertheless, took all the credit. Mi6, as i discussed in the book, is still regarded to this day is still regarded as the ultimate, all seeing, allknowing intelligence service. That was certainly true at the beginning of world war ii. Winston churchill thought that. So did adolf hitler. For some reason, i blank on his name because he was such a bad guy, i think. Anyway, the two top guys in the ss revered mi6. They considered it to be thats what they wanted to be. 6. Ey wanted to be mi si in fact, hitler signed some of his letters with the c, which is what the head of mi6 signed his letters with. The reason for this is because of the brilliance of a british spy novelist around the turn of the century who wrote several wonderful spy novels that talked about these intrepid british gentlemen spies, who, you know, went to oxford, dated beautiful women, married beautiful women, ate at the finest were at the finest clubs and occasionally would go off and dabble in intelligence work and would come back and save britain and go back to their lives riding the hounds and going back to the clubs. That is where james bond comes from. That is the same tradition. This has been around since the turn of the 20th century. So mi6 has this reputation. They come to it during world war ii, there was no reason for that reputation except for the fact that they were given that they took credit for the work that european services, who were working basically for them, and the enigma code is a perfect example. I talked about what the poles did, and i could go into great detail about that. There are many examples of such aid provided by the europeans, but interestingly and ironically, these contributions have been basically ignored by most historians, who generally portray the allied victory in world war ii as an americanbritishsoviet triumph. Thats one reason i wrote the book, to give credit where credit is due, but i also have to make clear the occupied countries received an enormous amount from the british in return. The first major gift, of course, is that britain gave european leaders a safe haven when they needed it most, but it also provided hope and inspiration for the millions of people in captive europe. For europeans, the mere fact that britain continued resistance to hitler was a sign that not everything was lost. For as long as the war lasted, many took part in a nighttime ritual. They took out radio sets, which had been outlawed by germans, from wherever they had hidden them, and turned them on to hear the chiming of big ben and the magical words, this is london calling. During and after the war, europeans described these secretive moments listening to bbc news programs as their lifeline to freedom. A frenchman who escaped to london later said, its impossible to explain how much we depended on the bbc. In the beginning, it was everything. Another escapee, a belgian journalist who managed to flee from a nazi concentration camp, arrived in london, as he said, drunk with happiness. Do you know i have been dreaming of this moment for months, he exclaimed to a british friend, adding, millions of people across the continent are thinking this moment of london. A Freedom Fighter declared that getting to london was like getting to heaven. Pilots who flew with the raf referred to britain as last hope island, that is where i got my title. There is another reason i wrote this book, which is like , previous books of mine, it is an amazing, rich human story with an enormous cast of wonderful, largerthanlife characters. Some are wellknown, like charles de gaulle, but most are not. They range from kings and queens to scientists, spies, and saboteurs. One of the major characters, for example, is the king of norway, who showed extraordinary courage during the war and became the focal point of his countrys resistance movement. Another major one is one of my favorites the earl of suffolk. He was a swashbuckling, young, english aristocrat who rescued two Nuclear Scientists from france just before it fell. Those two scientists later played a crucial role in developing the first atomic bomb in the manhattan project. And then there is a beautiful young french spy who flirted with german officers in paris to find out their secrets about hitlers new terror weapons. The v one flying bomb and v2 rocket. I also write about some really interesting bit players, including a teenaged audrey hepburn, who, before she became a movie star, served as a courier for the dutch resistance. And a fouryearold daughter of a czech Government Official in london who survived the blitz and grew up to become u. S. Secretary of state madeleine albright. Finally, theres Queen Wilhelmina of holland. Shes my favorite character of the book, and im going to spend a little more time talking about her. At that point, when the war broke out, when holland was invaded, she had been queen for 49 years. She assumed the throne at the age of 10. Her life up to that point had been extremely frustrating. She grew up in what she despairingly called the cage, which was her name for the oppressive, formal, strict atmosphere of the dutch royal court. She was raised with almost no friends or companions her own age. When she went ice skating in the winter, the canals in amsterdam were cleared of all people, and she was forced to skate alone. She was once overheard scolding one of her dolls, if you are naughty, i shall make you into a queen, and then you wont have any other little children to play with. Her dream from childhood was to perform what she called great deeds, like those of her famed ancestors. But she saw no possibility of fulfilling that dream. As her government ministers repeatedly made clear to her, she no longer possessed the power of william of orange and her other famed predecessors. Since the middle of the 19th century, holland had been a constitutional monarchy, which meant that wilhelmina, to her great frustration, had almost no power. She had the right to encourage and warn her government and the right to be consulted and informed, but the leader of the Coalition Governments that presided over the country during her rule did not consult her, and when she gave them unsolicited advice, like the possibility that hitler might indeed invade holland, that they should read mein kampf, like she had, they usually paid little or no attention. This really made her angry. She had a real temper. Later in the war, Winston Churchill would say he actually did say this i fear no man but Queen Wilhelmina. [laughter] she had a real temper, but there was not much she could do about it until her country was invaded by germany in world war ii. From london, she became the center and the soul of hollands resistance. Over the bbc, she delivered passionate, fiery, antinazi broadcasts to her countrymen. The dutch found it almost impossible to believe this was the same remote, aloof queen who had ruled them for more than 40 years. Her first broadcast, made the day after she arrived in england from holland, she made it clear she would never compromise with hitler, whom she called the arch enemy of mankind. One dutch mitered later made the comment, her speeches for highlight in our lives, especially when he attacked the germans in dutch nazis. During the war, a joke made the rounds in holland that wilhelminas young granddaughters were forbidden to listen to her on the radio because she used such subtle such foul language when she talked about the nazis. When German Authorities confiscated her palaces and other possessions in retaliation for those antinazi attacks, wilhelmina in her next broadcast vented her anger in what german translators later called amazingly heated swearwords. But she did more than speak. Early in the war, several members of the dutch government in exile in london, including the Prime Minister, wanted to approach hitler to seek a separate peace. Wilhelmina was determined to fight on. She informed the Prime Minister that she had lost all confidence in him. Resignation,s which she accepted. Display of queenly displeasure would never have been successful at home. In the netherlands, as i said, she had no real authority, and the cabinet and parliament ruled, but in london, there was no parliament. The cabinet now had to take her views into account. For wilhelmina, exile meant power, and she took full advantage of it. In the process, she achieved her greatest childhood ambition to perform great deeds. Just as with Winston Churchill and the british, world war ii was her finest hour. She stopped her defeatist government from capitulating, kept holland in the fight, and inspired and united her people. In doing all this, as one dutch historian said, she won a place in dutch history second to none. Thanks to that wartime stay in london, wilhelmina and the other european leaders were able to continue their fight against hitler, but those five years together gave the europeans Something Else an unprecedented opportunity, as nick mentioned, to form close, personal, and official connections with one another. Most of them had met each other occasionally, but they really had nothing in common, and they were basically forced for those five years to actually talk to each other. Not only talk to each other, but work with each other. Using those connections, several exiled governments began to explore the idea of gaining greater security and strength for europe through a possible European Union. One historian later wrote, if the European Community is compared to a house, those years of cooperative exile in wartime london are part of the foundation. By the end of the war, that foundation, thanks to the hospitality of churchill and britain, was already being laid. The ironic thing is at the end of the war, those countries in europe that were working toward a European Union actually wanted the british to continue leading. They were incredibly grateful to churchill and britain for giving them a refuge and allowing them to continue to fight, and they wanted churchill and the british to take the lead in fighting for a united europe and then to lead once that union came about. But the british reverted to their insular inclinations, and they had no interest in participating in that campaign for european integration. When the European Economic community was created in 1958, britain declined to join, although it did finally become a member in 1973. It did so very reluctantly. It was equally skittish about its later membership in the European Union itself. Throughout most of its history, britain has never been comfortable with the idea that it is part of europe. Which we saw that last year when the british voted in a referendum to leave the eu. I would be happy to answer questions and talk about that later in the questionandanswer period, but i want to keep the emphasis right now on the war. Despite what happened last year, the vital importance of those wartime years and that crucial alliance between the british and occupied europe could never be erased. To a french journalist, daughter of marie and pierre curie, the glory of britain during world war ii was embodied by Winston Churchill and the europeans could join him in london. In her words, those insane, unarmed heroes who decided two defied hitler. Thank you very much. [applause] and i would be happy to take any questions you might have about the subject. Please raise your hand. I will bring the microphone to you. We will start in the back, toward the center. With the situation in england , what was the was everyone in england for winston to go out and do it, or were there a lot of people that maybe wanted to negotiate with the germans . Lynne thats a good question, what was the feeling in england at the time. I wrote a book in which i go into that to some degree. You think of britain as being peacefully minded, and we think that way primarily because of Neville Chamberlain and his government. I think, actually, the british people, by the time 1940 arrived, were hungry for a leader. They had been growing more and more discontented with the appeasement policies of chamberlain, and what really upset them was the sneak german invasion of norway and denmark in april 1940. Chamberlain had promised peace for our time at munich and then just a few weeks before the invasion of norway and denmark, chamberlain said they missed the boat, talking about the germans, and all of a sudden, they invade and put the british who responded it was just a pitiful display by the british. By the way, led by none other than Winston Churchill. He was actually responsible for some of the slapdash response of the british. As i said, they were hungry for a leader, and as flawed as churchill was and he was as a naval leader at that point he was really the only person in the British Government who had the resolution who had a warlike spirit resolution to carry the country to victory, and the odds were so totally against britain. It is this tiny, Little Country, i mean, really, standing up against this, you know, huge behemoth. Very few people thought that could be pulled off, and thanks to the astonishing resolution and oratory, Winston Churchill, who rallied his people, but the reason he was able to rally his people is because the people were ready to be rallied. You know, they responded to him instantly. In ways, its kind of like after pearl harbor, you know, the American People rallied behind franklin roosevelt, but the situation was much more dire. Thats one reason i got interested in writing about i write a lot about england and i write a lot about england and world war ii, and the reason i do it is because it is such a dramatic time. A country that, you know, looks like it was about to go under, and it was, and this guy becomes Prime Minister on the very day that hitlers lunches is the blitzkrieg of western Europe Hitler launches the blitzkrieg of western europe. You cannot get much more dramatic than that. And so, it was part Winston Churchill, but it was also that the british people were ready for it, and the courage and the resolution of the british people was quite extraordinary. We think often about what there would what would have happened if there had been no churchill and the british people were not like that. God only knows where we would be. If britain had fallen in the summer of 1940, as many people in the government say they did want churchill to negotiate with the germans. If that had happened, seriously, i dont know where we would be. For a brief, shining moment, britain and churchill saved the world, and i dont think you can overemphasize that fact. We have got a question in the back row. Having all of these people coming into their countries lynne actually, that is an interesting question, and i will answer that. Actually when they came over, these european governments were helping to finance the british. For example, the belgians had a lot of gold reserves that they brought, and they lent them to the british so the british could afford to buy arms from the United States. You know we were selling them , arms. We were not giving them at that point. And so, the British Government was practically bankrupt at this point in 1940, and it was not until 1941 that that changed, but they relied on belgian gold to be able to buy arms. The lend Lease Program helped pay for much of the operations of not only the british but also these allied European Countries that were in london. Yes. We have heard a lot about dday, allies invading, but we havent heard much about what the germans plans were to invade england. Did they really have a plan . Or they just basically lynne well, they had kind of a halfbaked plan, operation sea lion in 1940. I mean, the hope was that the luftwaffe would be able to subdue the raf. That was really the only way the german army could invade glenn. Invade england. That tunnel is only 28 miles wide, but it is a ferocious body of water. It is very there is a reason why england has not been invaded in the last 900 years, that is because of the channel, so in order for the germans to be successful, they had to ensure the airpower of the raf would be wiped out, and they were not able to do it in the battle of britain. As i said, there were halfbaked plans to invade. You know, they had barges and hng craft, but hitlers itler had no really sophisticated plans for invading england. If, in fact, raf had been defeated, he may well have done it, but the raf held strong. As i said, in some large degree thanks to the european pilots, and therefore, even though churchill kept saying that an invasion might be imminent, he basically knew that the germans were not in any shape to invade. And then, obviously, once germany invaded the ussr in june 1941, that was off the table, really to invade britain. I met a veteran in the royal navy who said, we really appreciate what the raf and all of our allied pilots did, but there was this little thing called the royal navy that would have had a say in the invasion of england. Lynne oh, yes, no. Theres no question, but the royal navy by that time had suffered a lot in norway and some of the fighting that had gone on before. So they were not i mean, they were begging the u. S. For old destroyers to accompany a merchant ship the atlantic. They were having some they were short of everything, including planes and pilots. Thats why the european pilots were so important, but they were also short of ships. But there is no question. The royal navy still was a potent force. Great presentation. Lynne thank you. There has been a lot of writing about the royal family at the time, and i was wondering what your research has shown on the royal family influence. Such things as the royal family had distant relations with the nazis and members of the royal family married into the nazi body. Even though they may be sympathizers or something along those lines, did they have influence . There were certain members of the royal family, the duke of windsor being one of them, and a lot of the british aristocracy before the war a number were progerman. There was a very strong progerman influence. The king himself, king george, by the time the war began, he was very antigerman. In fact, he and his wife, the queen, queen elizabeth, took target practice, you know, to fight off the germans if they ever invaded. I mean they were absolutely , determined to stay in england if the germans theres a really funny story about i mentioned the king of norway. Thanks to the incredible interwinding of the royal familys, the king of norway was the uncle of george vi. He came over and lived in Buckingham Palace for a while before he moved to another house. And king hawken had been he fled from oslo, and the germans tried to track him down and kill him. He fled through the glaciers and mountains of norway with his family and with the government and, seriously, they were sending dive bombers everywhere he went, and they tried very, very hard to get rid of him, so he obviously knew what the germans were capable of, and one day, he was at Buckingham Palace, and he asked his nephew, the king, the british king, what measures they had taken to protect the king and the royal family, and the king said, oh, we have got it under control. We have got it under control. Theres a special guard that will come in and take us away as soon as theres any knowledge of an invading attack, and the king of norway asked his nephew to show him, to demonstrate this. So the king of england punched a button, which was supposed to alert this special armed force to come. Nothing happens. And so they waited around for a few minutes, and the king called whoever he was supposed to call, and they said, well, we didnt answer because we know theres no invasion. [laughter] the king said, well, act as if there is an invasion, so they had all these young guards come in, and king hawken, the king of norway, said hitting the bushes, as if they were trying to get at a rabbit or something. King hawken was truly horrified by this, not surprisingly, and he basically forced his got his nephew to strengthen the security measures at Buckingham Palace. And as it turned out, the germans did have a plan that they found after the war of sending in a force of over 100 paratroopers into the grounds of Buckingham Palace in case of an invasion and immediately rounding up the king, the queen, and their two daughters. So, i mean, its a funny story, but, you know, it could have turned out not that well if they had invaded. Thank god there was no invasion, but he was good. He and Winston Churchill did not like each other at all before Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, but they became like that during the war. He was a model for his subjects, king george vi. Got a question from somebody watching online. This may be jumping the gun. What is your next project . Lynne i love that. People on amazon are like, what next . Doing im like, i just spent three years writing this. I do have a project about one of the characters in the book, about one of the characters in the book about a woman who , headed the largest spy network in france during the war, reporting to the british, and her story is the stuff of movies. Its just a great story. So i am you know, it is not one of these big, sprawling books i usually write. Its focusing on one group of people, but i think it will be really good. I hope anyway. My question, where are you going to launch that . Lynne why, here, of course. [applause] here. Nk you for being i have a question about degaulle and the interplay with the British Government and the role he will play in vetoing the british initial interest in being part of the union. Can you speak a little bit towards the foundation that gets laid and how that might impact normalon top of their insular lynne absolutely. That is a really great question. Im sure all of you have read a lot about charles de gaulle. I have and i have written a lot about him, but it is such a human story. I mean, he was an impossible man. Everybody knew he was impossible. He was impossible to get along with. He was arrogant. He was cold. De, quite frankly, without gaulle, friends would not be where it is today. I must say, i have never watched a French Election with as much interest as i watched this past one, and im so happy with the way it turned out. But he had the most interesting relationship with churchill. Churchill welcomed him. Nobody else in the British Government wanted him. I mean, he was an obscure brigadier general. He had just been made a lower member of the french government just a couple of weeks before. Nobody knew who he was, and nobody cared, except for churchill, because he was the only french official who would cross the channel and say, you know, we must rally against the germans. The legal government of france, the vichy government capitulated and then collaborated. Only one, so ihe ehink churchill saw in de gaull something of himself, you know, the rebel standing alone against everyone else, so he welcomed him. De gaulle was hardly the easiest person to get along with, and the more he felt subordinate to the british, the more he would he fought the british. He did not want to be subordinate. He saw himself as the leader of france, and everybody laughed at that, including franklin roosevelt, who could not stand de gaulle, having never met him, but he just could not get over that france capitulated. Once france capitulated, that wiped france off the map for him. France would not reemerge, in his view, until after the war. And then, only we allowed them to emerge, and that was not in de gaulles plan at all. The war was, for him, a series of slights by roosevelt and by churchill as well because churchill was following in roosevelts footsteps, even though he felt very strongly about what de gaulle was doing. At the same time, the two of them fought like cats and dogs. Some of their fights, people thought they were actually trading blows. They would scream at each other behind closed doors. Again, at the same time, charles de gaulle, until the day he died, said if it had not been for Winston Churchill, i would not be here, and france would not be here the way it is, always gave credit to Winston Churchill as the one who basically saved him and saved france. To get to the second part of your question, de gaulle was furious at the way he was treated by both roosevelt and churchill. And that last that has colored frenchamerican relations and french british relations ever since. When de gaulle assumed power when de gaulle reassumed power in 1958, he cked, personally blocked england finally had decided, ok, well, we better join the common market. He said, no. Not while im president , youre not. And they didnt. It was well after de gaulle left the presidency. So it had tremendous, poisonous know, the you slighting of de gaulle had a lot of detrimental effects afterwards. In the very back, to your right. Just a minute, sir. What wasn for the attitude of the french and dutch and other europeans in 1940 toward america in the sense that in america, our most popular person was Charles Lindbergh . Prior to this time, joe kennedy, both with pronazi sentiments. What is the attitude of these people towards us . I think the attitude was one of love of america. I think europe certainly, the british, and, certainly, the europeans were upset that america was not doing anything to help them, and the british particularly got incredibly frustrated by the fact that the United States was dithering while they were close to being defeated, but i think overall, there was, especially in europe, there was a great, great love of america. I dont i have never done that Much Research in that particular regard, but i dont think there was any hostility towards america at that time overall hostility toward america at that time. Frustration and anger at certain people, but not towards the country itself. Back, to your left. If you look at the breakdown brexit vote, it was mainly older voters who voted in support of leave. Do you believe that as a result of the euro skepticism you described or a result of the past 10 years, for example, in the European Union, or is it Something Else . Lynne i think it is a combination. First of all, people tend to forget. It has been so many years since the war, and nick alluded to this, but basically, that european unification drive helped create almost half a century of peace and prosperity for western europe. I mean, it is just extraordinary what happened as a result of enemies, historic enemies, like france and germany, coming together, you know, in the late 1940s, early 1950s. That had never happened before. So it was extremely important what happened. , i do think that traditional insularity, that distrust of foreigners is still very strong, especially among older people. I mean, in london its very interesting how that vote broke down. London, i think, overwhelmingly voted to remain, but it is younger, much more cosmopolitan. City,a very multicultural i think there were people, particularly in rural areas, who really, you know hated that. Frankly, to this country in certain ways, so i think there are all sorts of elements. I get the impression everybody passed. Ked that brexit everybody was saying, its one of those things were just like during the war where the draft. In 1941, congress voted to continue the draft, the peacetime draft a few months before we got into the war. And everybody in congress said, oh, it is going to pass, so i do not have to vote for it. I can be a moral coward and not pass,r it, but it will and it only passed by one vote. I think there might have been some of that. A lot of Younger Voters did not vote because they thought it would pass, they did not have to vote. They found out they were wrong. I know that there was a polish brigade that fought with allies in normandy. Where there any combat troops from the other countries . Oh, yeah, well, the polleses had not just that one brigade in france, but they also had one in italy. They had more than 200,000 men in british uniform at the end of the war. They were the fourth largest contributor in terms of manpower of the allies, but, yes, other countries did as well. Smaller, but the dutch, the belgians, the czechs. I didnt i focus on polish pilots, but i should mention the czechs also provided a lot of pilots in the battle of britain and throughout the war. In terms of the troops that went over to the continent after dday were from occupied europe. And they went over there with a very different intent. You know they were basically out , for revenge and for taking back their countries. I also did not mention very much the resistance. The resistance in many of those holland, france, belgium, were played big roles in the invasion and the liberation of their countries, as well, so they did much more than most people think. Many of us are familiar with the movie enemy at the gate. Are you familiar with enemy at . Lynne no. Enemy at the door . The British Television series about the German Occupation of england. My question is and i guess shame on me because i watched the series for two seasons and ended before they showed how the germans were removed from the island. Do you have any information on that . Lynne i dont. I know it was late in the war. They were not liberated, i think, until early 1945 or late 1944. It was one of the you know the Channel Islands, holland was the same way, by the way. France had been liberated. Belgium had been liberated, and holland was going to be liberated, and then they lost operation market garden, which was a total disaster. And when that it became a total disaster, then the allies pulled out of the netherlands, and the netherlands was not liberated until three days before ve day. Meantime, they were starving, because the germans were starving them on purpose because of what they had done to help the allies, which is a story that very, very few people know. Tell me your question again. The Channel Islands. Lynne oh, the Channel Islands. Im not sure, but i know it was very late, and for the same reason. The Channel Islands were not important to the allies, and so they were kind of a last minute, you know, liberation. The allies always both britain and the u. S. , used the whenever anything was asked of them, they said, we will do it only if it helps us win the war. But their idea of winning the war, for example, the jews, bombing auschwitz i wont get into that, but their idea of we are not going to do it, because it will not help us win the war. No, it would not help us win the war as quickly as we want to. All these were political decisions, though, in the end. Have got a question in the front and then one more in the back. In 1945,rticipation and if i can be so rude to add two anecdotes concerning that situation lynne yes, they held the victory parade i believe in 1946, and they invited all who participated in the efforts, and it was brazil and all sorts of places, and they had a huge parade, but they did not invite the poles, who had actually fought. Because, in the meantime, the polish government in exile was basically accreditation was taken away from them by the british and france. They took the recognition of the polish government in exile away and awarded it to the communist government that had been set up by stalin. In poland. And as a result, they refused the government churchill was out at that time, the allied government at that time did not invite the poles who had actually flown those planes in the battle of britain and had fought at Monte Cassino they were not allowed to march in the parade. They were victims. The poles are in the worst place geographically that you can imagine they are, between germany and russia, and this kind of thing has happened to them over and over and over again. It is truly one of the and i make a big point of it in the book it is truly one of the worst tragedies that the poles, who had done so much to win the war, did not realize any of the benefits that the countries in western europe did. In fact, they were thrust under soviet subjugation until the late 1980s. If you may, i would like to add that over the years on remembrance day, november 11, i had a lot of contacts with people in britain, and the queen mother, mary, would always ask, where are my poles . She would always spend time with them. The last living portrait was painted by a pole and is on display in the museum in london. Also, the anniversary, i believe the 50th, a celebration of ve, victory parade, and many who citizens led the parade. Lynne that is good to know. And one last question in the very back. Hi, i was just curious from a numbers perspective, hearing that six governments were there and x of armies were there. Just kind of on a numbers scale, how many people . Lynne it varied. Well over 100,000 or 150,000. You have to remember a lot of these forces were in Different Countries fighting and training, but overall, about its hard to say. Its between 100,000 and 200,000 for the most part. So, you know, at this time thats one of the reasons i love writing about this. One of london was the most cosmopolitan city in the world. It must have been so much fun. Not the war, but a lot of people found it fun to live in london because its not only then you have millions of americans coming over later, but you were meeting this is a country that really did not have that many i mean, london was multicultural to some extent, but not anywhere near what it became in world war ii. It was really an exciting, exhilarating time, i think, to be in london. Terrifying at times, too, but overall, exciting. Thank you very much. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] waruncer escalating tensions and triggering three years of combat. America, wel feature films that tell the story of the war. First, the 1970 four orientation film for soldiers assigned to south korea, followed by 21950 one films that aired as part of the armys big picture series followed by two 1951 films. One on psychological warfare items broadcast across enemy lines